Technology

News spread quickly through the mortgage industry on Monday that long-standing auction house Hudson & Marshall (H&M) is being acquired by Fidelity National Financial (FNF). While industry reactions poured in, FNF's “hold” ratings began to switch to “buy” in many research firms. As part of this acquisition, FNF company ServiceLink is launching ServiceLink Auction.

After undergoing an extensive testing process, a mortgage document preparation vendor announced its Uniform Closing Dataset XML file has been certified by the GSEs. This new way of submitting documents will be required by Fannie and Freddie starting in the fall for all lenders selling to them. The company trusts this will bring consistency, transparency and clarity to the mortgage industry.

On Wednesday, in response to recent Ransomware attacks across over 150 countries around the world including the publicized DocuSign, Fitch Ratings issued a press release reminding information technology (IT) companies in the mortgage finance industry the importance of remaining vigilant in the ever-present need for regular security testing. While it reports no operations have been effected, it stresses the need for continued and constant upgrades to both software and hardware.

Although the industry has been slow to adopt, about three in five mortgage lenders agree that their firm is making the best use of data for their business. However, most lenders call themselves “technology followers,” not early adopters, and less than half stated that the pace of technological innovation in the industry has been too slow. Mortgage firms are starting to adopt new technologies like Application Programming Interfaces (API) in order to reduce errors and costs and speed up transactions.

Out-of-sync technologies are holding businesses back, according to a recent report. Additionally, make it hard to serve the millennial homebuyer, who expects a more seamless, digitized solution when purchasing a home. This is largely because tech solutions in today’s post-crisis, highly-regulated industry are product-specific, which creates a “complex ecosystem made up of siloed disparate systems.”

MERSCORP Holdings, Inc., announced this week it will support the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s updated Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requirements by facilitating legal entity identifier (LEI) registrations and renewals for users of MERS System and other industry participants.

Optimal Blue, a provider of a secondary mortgage market eCommerce platform, announced a partnership with Media Center CRM, which provides customer relationship management solutions to the mortgage industry. Mortgage and real estate professionals using Media Center CRM will have access to real-time prices from Optimal Blue.

Black Knight Financial Services announced last week the release of LoanSphere Empower 7.0, a new version of its loan origination system (LOS), including updates aimed at compliance with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and enhanced technological integrations.

Safeguard Properties, a mortgage field services provider based in Valley View, Ohio, announced Tuesday two new professionals are joining the company’s management team: Sheilla Lienerth as Assistant VP of Client Relations and Lisa Nicholas as Director of Finance and Accounting.

In an effort to streamline the mortgage loan origination process, ValuAmerica announced Tuesday that LendingQB customers will now have access to ValuAmerica title services.