Tech Roundup: Mortech Sees Dividends from LendingTree Partnership

Mortech gets more: A partnership between LendingTree and Mortech, Inc. is clearly paying dividends for the Nebraska-based tech provider, despite the industry downturn. The company said Monday that it has seen its LendingTree customer base grow by nearly 450 percent in one year; a partnership between the two firms was first announced in October 2007. Mortech provides LendingTree users the option access to its Marksman product eligibility and pricing engine, as well as an embedded CRM platform integrated directly with LendingTree — the platform helps lenders track and respond to leads generated by website. “Mortech is our primary preferred provider of lead management and pricing technology. Over the past years, Mortech has simplified the loan closing process for our network lenders who choose to use Mortech,” said Loudoun Emswiler, senior director of lender technology for Lending Tree. “They have delivered a complete solution, all while consistently providing quality service.” Zaio gets visually enhanced: Scottdale, Ariz.-based Zaio said last week that it had added new photograph capabilities to its i-Val and realAssessment products. The new capabilities will provide instant access to verified property photos, which the company said will improve “accuracy and reliability for financial institutions and others that are increasing their use of automated valuation products in this volatile market.” Zaio said currently has more than 23 million photos in its virtual warehouse and is pursuing the goal of photographing every home in major cities and metropolitan areas. While we’re awed by the goal, we can’t help but wonder: Zaio’s products didn’t already come with photographs? That’s surprising, given that photos have been a feature of most AVMs since, oh, they were first invented. SigniaDocs launches GFE/TIL warranty: Citing increasing borrower accusations toward lenders of improper disclosure processes, SigniaDocs, a provider of complete eMortgage services, said last week that it had launched eSign eNsure. The new service enforces compliant disclosure and closing practices by warranting the Good Faith Estimate (GFE), the Truth In Lending Statement (TIL) and annual percentage rate (APR) calculations by creating electronic date and time stamps in key disclosure areas, signifying borrower understanding and acceptance of the loan conditions. The new service was developed in collaboration with Shanks Darby, PC, a Houston, Texas-based law firm specializing in commercial and residential real estate law and compliance. “Electronic initials can be placed anywhere on the document that you want to direct the borrower’s attention,” said Tim Anderson, president of SigniaDocs. “We are seeing more and more cases of borrowers claiming they never understood or intended to convey acceptance of many loan provisions because they only signed once at the end of the contract.” Ellie Mae gets more horsepower: IT infrastructure provider SAVVIS, Inc. said last week that Ellie Mae would relocate and consolidate its U.S.-based IT infrastructure into two SAVVIS data centers in Santa Clara, CA and Chicago, IL. The move comes as Ellie Mae’s Encompass Mortgage Management Solution is looking to position itself as the LOS of choice for FHA originations, having recently rolled out new features to support originating under the government program. Not bad timing, given that everything’s headed to FHA right about now. FICS rolls out reporting solutions: Financial Industry Computer Systems, Inc. — that’s FICS to the rest of us — said Monday that it had completed a recent roll out of BusinessObjects Enterprise Professional and Crystal Reports XI to users of its Loan Producer residential loan origination system. The new tools will allow users to manage and deploy tools for reporting, query and analysis, and performance management, the company said in a press statement. No word on whether Loan Producer users had to live without reports prior to BusinessObjects’ arrival on the scene. Editor’s note: Tech Roundup runs each Monday morning, and offers a look at key tech news and trends from throughout the week. To have your company’s news considered for inclusion here, send an email with your press statement to [email protected].