Several offerings promise to help mortgage originators avoid compliance errors, and one claims to help increase production. But for financial institutions and other peripheral players who don’t want to be saddled with the bricks-and-mortar cost of originating mortgages, several service providers are promoting multiple alternatives.
Envoy Mortgage selected the online sales and leadership training programs of XINNIX for its branch managers and loan officers. In addition to the “ideal” mix of such programs, XINNIX reported it was chosen because of its convenience online classes.
The programs include XINNIX EDGE Online, which empowers loan officers to grow their production, and XINNIX LEADERSHIP Online, a workshop that offers sales managers strategies in business planning, loan officer recruiting and retention, coaching skills and sales force management tactics.
Throughout the past year, Lending Solutions Inc. added 30 credit unions to its client roster of approximately 300 financial institutions that use its lending and member service support solutions. The majority of the new accounts opted for LSI’s flagship loan-by-phone and online lending services, which includes contacting members that apply for a loan via the Web and “substantially increases the funding ratio and cross-sell income of the online lending channel.” Five of the credit unions chose LSI’s 24/7 member service solution, while another six signed on for its collections outsourcing service, the Illinois-based company announced.
Meanwhile, Kislak Lending Solutions announced Atlantic Bank and Trust is the second client it has signed on for its loan fulfillment services. The community bank recently expanded its residential mortgage offerings and chose to outsource fulfillment services to avoid a hefty investment in a mortgage fulfillment back office. Through the partnership, Kislak offers Atlantic Bank access to its proprietary technology solution, underwriting methodology, and document preparation.
Detroit-based Quicken Loans Inc. announced the launch of Quicken Loans Mortgage Services, a mortgage fulfillment services division that caters to community banks and credit unions. The offering reportedly helps small producers improve the quality of the origination process without the costly expense of more employees. Quicken processes and completes the loan, enabling the financial institutions to continue being the point-of-contact and closing location. The division also enables clients to expand their loan menu to include conventional, FHA, VA and Fannie Mae HomePath mortgages.
While Kislak and Quicken target community banks, small financial companies that want to grow their mortgage offerings or large lenders who want to cut overhead costs can look to Fairway Mortgage Independent Corp. The Wisconsin-based lender announced it now offers fulfillment services, consisting of four business solutions.
With Fairway Advantage and Fairway Direct, Fairway processes and underwrites the loan, reviews title documents and prepares the closing package. The difference is that Fairway Advantage is suited for originators who want to only provide minimal documentation, such as a loan application, credit and income documentation and rate quotes, while Fairway Direct is for originators with minimal mortgage lending experience who can provide mortgage application and supporting documentation from borrowers and complete the initial disclosures to meet regulatory compliance.
Fairway Traditional is a third-party originator/lender relationship in which the lender originates and processes the loan all the way through ordering the appraisal and title work, leaving Fairway to prepare closing documents, schedule the closing date and table fund the loan.
Correspondent lenders can opt for Fairway Correspondent to offer credit and collateral analysis, prepares the loan for closing and thereafter have Fairway’s post-closing department complete loan processing to deliver it to the secondary market.
TeleTech Loan Services LLC, which also provides mortgage fulfillment services from pre-qualification through post closing, announced it was endorsed by the American Bankers Association. Under an exclusive, multiyear agreement, ABA will promote TeleTech’s services to its approximately 5,000 members, while TeleTech will offer advantaged terms for ABA members and perform the services within the United States. ABA reportedly chose to endorse the firm due to its “innovative technology platform coupled with its financial services expertise and commitment to driving quantifiable results.”
Another mortgage fulfillment outsource operation, Titan Lenders Corp., reported that it signed 15 mortgage banker clients in the first two quarters of 2010. The company says it uses its Web-based Cerberyx software to support its fulfillment services, including funding, compliance, closing, post-closing, purchase review for correspondents and warehouse lenders, trailing documents, MERS management, FHA insuring, and document management.
Northfield Bank announced it opted for PHH Mortgage as a partner for its loan origination and servicing business. The New Jersey-based lender said PHH’s mortgage platform allows loan prospects to initiate a loan application online or by phone and enables faster approvals, streamlined documentation requirements and 24-hour access to prospects’ loan processing status.
First Foundation Bank recently announced it is able to offer home loans to its customers thanks to a partnership with San Francisco-based Bay Equity LLC, which will underwrite and fund conforming and jumbo conforming home loans for First Foundation clients.
CoreLogic Credco said it launched FinalCheck, an automated, fully decisionable suite of three pre-funding risk evaluation products designed to help lenders satisfy government sponsored enterprise requirements, reduce repurchase risk and increase loan delivery confidence.
The first, CreditCheck, performs a “gap” analysis on credit information between pre-approval and pre-funding. Next, AppCheck searches against proprietary databases and the Mortgage Electronic Registration System for undisclosed loans. The third, FraudCheck, verifies that neither the borrower or loan participants are on a Department of Housing and Urban Development or other investor exclusionary list.
Credco said debt-to-income ratios increase by more than 3 percent between pre-qualification and pre-funding for nearly 6 percent of applicants and exceed more than 45 percent at pre-funding for an additional 7 percent.
In a recent announcement, Veri-tax LLC indicated that pending regulations resulting from the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act have prompted many lenders to rush and focus too much on pricing versus security in choosing income, employment and asset verification products. The California-based income and verification services provider added that some of its competitors are performing noncompliant and highly unsecure procedures, such as e-mailing tax transcripts to lenders.
So Veri-tax said it will launch an automated quality control software solution by yearend that will reduce applicant rejections based on income and identity verification orders while providing data on process errors to give lenders insight on their processes. This quarter will also see Veri-tax’s employment and assets/deposits verification products and an upgraded version of its Mortgage Fraud Report, which instantly gathers borrower data from various databases and compiles a score assessing a borrower’s risk level.
In the meantime, New Jersey-based income, identity, and credit solutions provider NCS has launched VOE CONFIRM, a solution that produces a GSE-compliant report that verifies the accuracy of loan prospects’ employment information, along with details of the steps involved in the accuracy determination process. With VOE, lenders can expect a 24- to 48-hour turnaround on requests they submit via NCS’ website to verify employment information given by prospects. Once the request is submitted, NCS conducts the necessary research, its staff makes phone calls to verify the employment information, and VOE produces the report.
“While employment verifications are not new to the mortgage industry, the demand for timely and accurate employment verification that delivers the next level of quality assurance is very strong,” NCS Executive Vice President Curt Knuth said in the announcement. “Whether trying to remain in compliance with the loan quality initiative or identify potential fraud, lenders must be able to confirm the information provided on borrower applications.”
In Atlanta, The Work Number, a service of Equifax, recently announced it added automated products AuditCheck and AccountCheck to its outsourced verification solution. AuditCheck verifies self employment and makes related documentation available throughout the loan life cycle or within a broker network. AccountCheck verifies deposits and assets, providing an electronic confirmation of a borrower’s account balance and analysis of transaction history, without direct manual interaction from the borrower’s financial institution.
