Technology

Sterling National Corporation recently introduced Sterling Total Escrow Solutions - an escrow administration solution for small lenders who have been struggling to comply with new Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act provisions. According to Sterling National, this new offering is the industry's only complete escrow solution, and it allows small lenders to quickly order escrow administration services for new loans and generate the initial escrow disclosure statement online via TotalEscrowServicing.com.

Strategic Disposition Group, LLC, recently launched OfferAssurance.com, a new online platform aimed at addressing the industry-wide concern of fraud in short sale and REO transactions and the need to improve capital recovery for institutional sellers of residential real estate by providing transparency. According to the company, OfferAssurance.com addresses potential fraud and abuse of fiduciary responsibility by having buyer agents, rather than listing agents, submit offers online, thus providing true transparency to the offer submission process.

CoreLogic announced Tuesday the availability of WillCap, a new decisioning system that has the ability to predict distressed borrowers' willingness and capacity to make their mortgage payments, thus giving investors and servicers the ability to make more strategic loan modification, short sale, and liquidation decisions at both a loan and portfolio level.

Merscorp, Inc. (MERS) is making investor information for loans registered on the MERS System available to borrowers at no charge. Through the MERS ServicerID Web site, both servicer and investor information are now displayed. The added investor information is an expansion of the MERS InvestorID program launched in June 2009, which mails a notice to borrowers when the identity of their loan's owner or investor changes.

Equator said Thursday that 300,000 short sales have been initiated on its platform since the short sale automation solution was launched in November 2009. Just over a month ago, the company hit the 200,000 mark, illustrating just how quickly short sale transactions are gaining momentum. Since January, Equator says its technology platform has processed twice the amount of short sales as REOs. Its users completed an average of 196,822 short sale transactions per day during the first two months of the second quarter of 2010.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services announced this week that the company's Fair Lending Wiz software now includes an Ethnicity Proxy functionality to help improve the quality of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) loan data to detect potential problems that may contribute to discriminatory loans. The Department of Justice is currently investigating 18 lenders for potential fair lending violations as the housing crisis has made predatory lending an area of focus.

The online real estate bidding site RealtyBid.com has partnered with the special assets group of national commercial real estate broker, Marcus & Millichap, to develop CommercialBid.com--an online bidding site specifically for commercial real estate assets. The new Web site officially launched July 1, 2010 with the unveiling of a special bidding event offering commercial property and commercial loans valued at more than $60 million.

Equator, the Los Angeles-based provider of software solutions for the default servicing industry, has introduced Professional (PRO) Short Sale and PRO HAFA modules to expand its PRO Workstation application. The newly launched modules provide a method for lenders, real estate agents, and borrowers to conduct real-time, transparent communication throughout the short sales process.

As part of a new strategic alliance, ClearMarkets, LLC, announced Tuesday that it is partnering with the Keller Williams Global Property Solutions Group. Through this partnership, ClearMarkets will gain access to Keller Williams' network of certified residential and commercial agents and brokers. In return, these agents will be trained by Keller Williams on ClearMarkets' technology and expertise for transparent bid management, asset sales and marketing, as well as reporting.

Default Servicing Technologies, LLC (DST) recently introduced a new Web-based REO workflow platform for residential and small commercial properties. The new system is modeled after the company's flagship asset management software, DispoSolutions, but has been specifically designed to serve small to medium-sized banks, credit unions, outsourcers, and hedge funds.