Digital Innovations

Wells Fargo Foothill recently launched a Technology Finance unit to provide for the unique financing needs of software and technology-enabled solutions firms, parent Wells Fargo & Co. announced. The unit will offer senior secured credit facilities from $10 million to $1 billion and more, each tailored to the needs of the industry. Structures will include those that address perpetual license, software-as-a-service and hosted solutions business models.

SunTrust Banks Inc. announced that it recently made improvements to its electronic reporting delivery service Online Courier, which provides automated delivery of balance reporting, special reports, wire advices and account alerts without the need for client login. Enhancements include new wire advice data exports that offer advice detail in multiple data formats and uploads data feeds, streamlining reconciliation and cash application. Businesses receiving large volumes of wire transfers, such as title companies and real estate closing attorneys are reportedly already seeing a positive, time-saving impact to their processes.

ING Direct entered into an agreement to brand seven ATMs of Cardtronics Inc., including those located in ING DIRECT Cafes, that will allow ING customers to use the ATMs free of charge.

A partnership with Equisys Inc. will allow docSTAR to add a faxing component to its newest document management application. The fax transmissions will be possible through Equisys’ Zetafax network fax software, which can be integrated into Microsoft’s latest platforms.

The lender and broker clients of mortgage credit reporting company, Credit Service Co., will have access to the Deal Maker Score from Market Kinetix LLC, a news release stated. The Deal Maker is an analysis tool that lets borrowers know what the steps they need to take to achieve their target credit score. The information is obtained once the mortgage professional runs a borrower’s credit report and clicks on the Deal Maker option from within Credit Service’s Web portal.

To further reduce its mortgage delinquency ratio, BOK Mortgage expanded its use of Varolii Corp.’s interactive collections solution, Varolii announced. Since adding Varolii to its mortgage collections process, BOK has realized a 12 percent reduction in its delinquency ratio, as compared to the same period in 2006. Because the solution automates much of the communications process around early stage delinquencies, the company can focus resources on contacting complex, high-priority accounts.

“Before switching to Varolii, our loan counselors were tied to an auto dialer,” Ewing said. “Now with Varolii, they are more productive and can concentrate on severely delinquent accounts. It’s also making the process easier for our customers, as Varolii allows them to pay anytime — not just during regular working hours.“

Bank of the West is automating its commercial loan process by using ILog JRules, according to a news release. The business rule management system product will allow the bank to create a more efficient loan review and approval process, reducing to one day the time required for credit reviews, and improving regulatory compliance. Administrators’ workload and operational costs are also expected to reduce with the new system.

“In addition to slashing the time required for a credit review cycle, ILOG JRules will enable us to create a standard, streamlined credit review process that the entire bank will follow,” a Bank of the West executive reportedly said in the release. “Behind the scenes, the ILOG technology, which is proving to be very intuitive, allows us to create scenarios and evaluate results before putting them into production. This will give us a greater level of control and a higher degree of confidence in the business rules we put in place.”

WEI Mortgage Corp. selected to use the Lender Online and BestEx product and pricing engines of Sollen Technologies, according to an announcement. WEI reviewed four equivalent products and found Sollen offered the most favorable mixture of features and functions, including ease of use, guidelines and pricing accuracy. Lender Online enables loan searching, validation, loan level adjusted pricing and locking for a wholesale, retail, correspondent or call center application, and is complemented by the Best Ex pricing engine and product development solution, which offers secondary marketing desk capabilities to search for more profitable options on the secondary market by comparing products and prices in real time.

On the secondary side, wholesaler AME Financial Corp. is planning to step into correspondent and retail lending and thus has decided to use the mortgage technology of Beanstalk Networks LLC to improve efficiency by fully automating the loan pricing, origination and underwriting process. AME, which specializes in prime and conforming loans, had been using an offshore vendor for its mortgage software but has signed a four-year contract to use Beanstalk’s OpenClose mortgage lending solution and Decision Assist loan pricing and underwriting software services.

Wholesale lender Greystone Residential Funding Inc. formed a partnership with Freddie Mac that is intended to bring community lender customers of Freddie an expansive mortgage product menu, innovative technology, and a comprehensive set of tools and services to streamline and enhance their mortgage operations. Without any capital expenditures in equipment or software, the relationship gives Freddie customers access to Greystone’s mortgage marketing tools and a servicing-released sales process, among other things.