Tech Roundup: Appraiser Management Tool Rolls Out, PMI Expands e-PMI Access

Pittsburgh-based ServiceLink, a provider of origination and default services, has launched its Appraiser Panel Management (APM) product line, which the company says enables mortgage lenders to leverage ServiceLink’s management staff and technologies to certify their compliance with the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), while continuing to leverage the lender’s own experienced appraiser panel. HVCC is a new code of conduct mandated by the Federal government and is scheduled to become effective on May 1, 2009. “The intent of our APM product is to provide lenders with an appraisal valuation solution that fully complies with the HVCC, while not forcing the lender to abandon the individual appraiser relationships that they have developed over years of trusted service,” says Jeff Coury, president and CEO of ServiceLink. ServiceLink’s APM solution allows the lender to upload their trusted panel of appraisers into a lender specific instance of the Vision software that is managed and operated by ServiceLink. All appraisal management processes including lender contact, borrower contact, appraiser contact, performance evaluation, transaction payment and quality control reviews are performed by a lender focused group within ServiceLink. http://www.servicelinkfnf.com/home.aspx FICS’ Mortgage Servicer to Assist with Ginnie Mae Reporting Financial Industry Computer Systems, Inc., a mortgage technology provider that offers in-house residential origination, servicing technology and commercial servicing technology, announced today the implementation of Mortgage Servicer at Mesa, Ariz.-based Cascade Financial Services. Cascade Financial Services is a full service mortgage bank that specializes in providing land/home-lending solutions for the manufactured housing industry. The company had a goal to move away from delivering loans on a flow basis to financial institutions that purchase loans on a correspondent basis. This enables the organization to be completely independent of secondary investors utilizing its status as an issuer of Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) securities, the company said in a press release. At the time Cascade Financial Services did not have an in-house servicing operation and in order to be a Ginnie Mae issuer, an organization must have servicing capabilities or outsource the servicing to a third party; therefore, Cascade Financial Services selected FICS’ residential mortgage servicing system to serve as the backbone of its servicing operation because of its ability to meet its specific requirements. “Moving away from secondary investors was a critical part of our business plan,” says George Dover, CEO of Cascade Financial Services. “Secondary investors are very particular when it comes to Manufactured Housing. Due to this niche we operate in being able to securitize our retail originations through Ginnie Mae and the ability to service those loans was critical to us.” http://cascadeloans.com/ Sollen Celebrates Sollen Technologies, an Internet-based application services provider of product, pricing and execution capabilities, has recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary delivering product and pricing engine technology to mortgage originators. In business since February of 1999, Sollen Technologies was formed with one thing in mind, to solve the complex problem of mortgage pricing and communications between the broker/correspondent and the lender, the company said in a press release. Most recently, Sollen has reformulated its core product, Lender Online. The latest version fosters improved functionality and easier navigation that allows customers “superior processes and enhanced flexibility, which tailors the system to the way they do business,” according to the company. http://www.sollen.com/ More Lenders Prefer All Inclusive Origination Systems Thanks to significant improvements in “end-to-end” technologies, more lenders are opting to employ all-inclusive origination systems that tend to save lenders time, money and a great deal of effort, said an industry insider this morning. Kevin Smith, CEO of Mortgage Builder Software cites a number of reasons that the controversy between “best of breed” componentry and “end-to-end” solutions is drawing to a close, most of them having to do with technology advances and cost considerations. “The days when you had to research and test each individual component of the origination system, then spend large amounts of time and money making them work with your core systems are pretty much over,” says Smith.  “Not only is it unnecessary these days, but also few companies have that kind of money to spend in today’s market. Lenders are finding that having someone else host and maintain those systems is a far more economical way to go, and the systems have become as sophisticated as anything the largest lenders can build, Smith says. PMI Expands Access to e-PMI Ordering System PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. announced this morning that its e-PMI online mortgage insurance ordering system now accepts mortgage insurance submissions from all lenders. Previously, only lenders with delegated authority to underwrite the mortgage insurance themselves benefited from the electronic ordering process. With this announcement, lenders who rely on PMI’s insurance underwriting can also utilize e-PMI’s streamlined online submission process, the company said in a press release. “This e-PMI(R) enhancement makes it possible for all lenders to enjoy the benefits of electronic origination by eliminating the need for paper insurance applications, and enabling the lender to upload document images, monitor transactions, and access approved mortgage insurance certificates within seconds,” says John Ryan, PMI’s vice president of E-Commerce & Technology Product Management. http://www.pmi-us.com/resourcecenter/technology.html AllRegs Enhances State Compliance Package AllRegs, an information provider for the mortgage lending industry, announced three new, key features have been added to the State Compliance Package accessed through AllRegs Online. State Compliance Package subscribers currently benefit from online, searchable access to plain language interpretations, links to supporting laws and regulations, English and Spanish language disclosures and more for all 50 states. Now enhanced, subscribers have access to loan file checklists, disclosure matrices and permissible fee matrices for each of the 50 states. “These documents can be printed and inserted into the front of every loan file, or used as a reference for state compliance,” says Dan Thomas, AllRegs senior vice president. “Mortgage professionals will be able to ensure that their loan files are complete and compliant by using these new checklists and matrices, streamlining processes and promoting accuracy.” Each product is an instant-print worksheet that is continually updated by AllRegs, the company said in a press release. http://www.allregs.com/home/default.aspx Write to Kelly Curran at [email protected]. Editor’s note: Tech Roundup runs every Monday, and offers a look into the various technology that makes the entire mortgage market work — whether origination or default, through to secondary market operations. If you’ve got a tech bit that we should know about, email the reporter above.