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August 1, 2008
Top 25 Tech-Savvy Lenders
What does it take to be named one of our Top 25 Tech-Savvy Lenders? We look first to the stats we collect for online overall and retail lending. Certainly, our list had to change this year due to the market. Ongoing restructuring of the industry made us take a wait-and-see on some that we know are making unpublicized strides with technology that we hope to honor in the future. Here, in alphabetical order, are this year's tech-savvy lenders:
ALLIED HOME MORTGAGE
www.alliedmtgcapital.com
Houston, Texas-based Allied Home Mortgage Capital, founded in 1991, is the largest privately held U.S. mortgage banker/mortgage broker. Its ApprovalExpress system goes beyond pre-qualification to return an LP approval in minutes. The company has created a proprietary system to order services in lieu of a bundled services platform. Erasmus, Allied's private service-oriented architecture platform, has extended its reach to link branch offices and business partners to the core network through encrypted web services-driven applications. The Erasmus platform also extends LoanEZ's functionality into the Calyx and Encompass systems.
AMTRUST BANK
www.amtrust.com
A former MT award winner as Ohio Savings, AmTrust leverages technology today to offer hybrid e-closings that can be done in 13 minutes. AmTrust has a national presence in retail banking, mortgage and construction lending, investment and insurance services. To date the lender has more than $17 billion in assets. AmTrust Bank registered the ten thousandth e-note on the MERS eRegistry on April 4, 2008. A member since June 2002, AmTrust Bank has been a leading proponent of electronic mortgages and began registering e-notes on MERS in July 2005.
CHASE HOME FINANCIAL
www.chase.com
Our mortgage stats division ranks Iselin, N.J.-based Chase Home Finance second highest in total Internet mortgage loan tallies for 2007. The lender saw its online originations increase by 62% as compared to one year prior to come in at about $68 billion. This improvement allowed them to move up the ranks to No. 2 in 2007 from No. 3 in 2006. And they could be No. 1 in 2008, but we have to wait and see. So far, in the first quarter of this year Chase was the No. 1 online originator. Its online originations increased by 31% as compared to one year prior.
CITIMORTGAGE
www.citimortgage.com
At $90.4 billion, St. Louis, Mo.-based CitiMortgage was the top online originator in 2007. Citi's online originations increased by 102% as compared to 2006, which allowed the lender to move of from No. 2 to No. 1 in terms of total online originations. However, this year Chase is giving Citi a run for the No. 1 spot. In the first quarter of this year Citi originated $17.8 billion, a 5% decline from one year prior. These numbers gave the lender the No. 2 position in the first quarter as compared to Chase, which took the No. 1 slot.
COASTAL COMMUNITY MORTGAGE
www.coastalcommunitymortgage.net
Last year, in response to market changes, North Florida-based Coastal Community Mortgage, a division of Coastal Community Bank, embarked upon plans for aggressive expansion. The company deployed a hosted solution after evaluating several options. Coastal Community had the intent of delivering documents electronically. The new software enables the lender to shift workloads quickly and easily, and for basically no additional cost. By deploying the technology on a hosted basis, Coastal Community Mortgage benefited from a faster implementation, greater scalability, reduced cost, and higher reliability as compared to technology deployed in-house. Since deploying the company has gone paperless.
E-LOAN INC.
www.eloan.com
Now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Banco Popular North America, Pleasanton, Calif.-based E-Loan Inc. has been a trend-setter in Internet consumer-direct mortgage lending since the early days of the dotcom revolution. E-Loan was a top 15 online originator in 2007, doing $2.2 billion in originations, which was a slight 2% increase as compared to one year prior. The Customer Respect Group stated that E-Loan offers superior Internet access to mortgage, auto and home equity loans. To that mix E-Loan has added motorcycle loans, SBA loans and student loans. Over the past year E-Loan has made significant progress toward implementation of e-signatures and paperless processing.
ENT FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
www.ent.com
Ent Federal Credit Union in Colorado, a Prime Alliance customer, implemented the Dexma Loan Origination Center and is now adding on the Dexma Loan Fulfillment Center to handle everything from the loan application through closing documents. This year, their technology solution enabled them to handle a 400% increase in FHA loan volume. The lender was able to handle this dramatic increase in volume because specific FHA processing tasks and conditions are automatically built right into the Dexma technology workflow for an FHA loan. Ent also puts a premium on customer service. The company offers free seminars and a variety of educational resources online.
FAIRWAY INDEPENDENT MORTGAGE CORP.
www.FairwayIndependentMC.com
Headquartered in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp. is a full service mortgage broker and banker. Fairway provides a wide range of mortgage loan products, including conventional, FHA, VA and construction loans. Fairway is approved with over 130 top lenders. The company takes a systematic approach to the origination and processing functions by utilizing milestone events throughout the process. Fairway also utilizes bar-coded delivery through Ellie Mae's Encompass offering. The company utilizes a single database architecture that captures every detail of customer, loan, and process information through built-in management dashboard and reporting tools.
FIRST HOUSTON MORTGAGE
www.firsthouston.com
First Houston Mortgage is the only mortgage banker of its size to have closed and delivered a Category One SMART Doc e-note to the GSEs. In addition, First Houston has successfully delivered a completely paperless file into the secondary market to non-GSE investors. The company utilizes service-oriented architecture to manage integration framework. The lender has also participated in pilot programs with two of the top three national investors to purchase loans from a hybrid data/image feed. First Houston also touts that it has implemented a bar code recognition systems for instant/auto storage and indexing.
FLAGSTAR BANK
www.flagstar.com
Troy, Mich.-based FlagStar Bank is famed in the mortgage industry as a pioneer in creating a paperless back office. A wholly owned subsidiary of FlagStar Bancorp, Inc., FlagStar Bank is a growth-oriented community bank with approximately 170 banking centers in Michigan, Indiana and Georgia. Chartered in 1987 as a federal savings bank, today Flagstar has assets approaching $16 billion. FlagStar has extended its automation prowess to now include full e-mortgages. The lender started selling e-mortgages to Fannie Mae last year and hopes to broaden its e-pipeline this year.
GMAC BANK
www.gmacbank.com
GMAC Bank has taken a huge step in furthering e-mortgage adoption. The bank is now accepting e-mortgages and has adopted e-vault technology to electronically audit and store e-mortgages that aren't sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. The GMAC Bank, Trust Operations, Document Custody Division provides its clients with ease of access to their files while safeguarding the collateral. Services include initial and final pool certification in accordance with agency guidelines, accurate collateral tracking of the pool, file and document level, and audit and safeguarding of a portfolio or individual loans pending sale.
GO FINANCIAL SOLUTIONS
www.goliveloans.com
A division of Strategic Recovery Group based in Plano, Texas, GO Financial Solutions is the first retail lender to offer a 100% paperless mortgage solution from start to finish. Offering a simplified process and instant access to the components required to obtain a mortgage, our customers gain more transparency and control over their mortgage purchase. GO Financial funds their loans a fraction of the time required by the traditional process. Specifically, SigniaDocs Inc has gone live with Go Financial Solutions to deliver a secure e-disclosure service to their customers. The solution is offered as a private label Web service.
GOODMORTGAGE.COM
www.goodmortgage.com
Founded in 1999 in Charlotte, NC, goodmortgage.com provides residential mortgage lending in 15 states. GoodMortgage.com boasts that it provides online information, streamlined, personal processes and unmatched rate and loan choices to assist borrowers in their home purchases, refinancing and home equity loans. goodmortgage.com takes the mystery out of the lending process, truly establishing an environment "where loans click." After the loan application, the lender e-mails updates with the loan status. The lender also has a password-protected website that shows the progress of the loan.
HSBC MORTGAGE CORP.
www.us.hsbc.com
In a time of turmoil, HSBC Mortgage Corp., Depew, N.Y., remained a top 10 online originator in 2007. The lender originated $8.2 billion online, just a 4% drop from one year prior. HSBC is consistently ranked among the top mortgage companies, servicing over 429,000 first mortgages totaling in excess of $68.8 billion and over 121,720 home equity loan totaling in excess of $3.5 billion. HSBC Mortgage Corp., is a member of the HSBC Group, one of the largest banking and financial service organizations in the world.
LEADERONE FINANCIAL CORP.
www.leader1.com
LeaderOne Financial's ability to leverage technology has allowed for continued growth throughout the United States. Items such as operating efficiencies, cost savings, consumer safety, environmentally friendly measures and the overall LeaderOne team member experiences are greatly enhanced due to the company's commitment to technology. For example, LeaderOne utilizes imaging technology to reduce the use of paper significantly. LeaderOne employees use video streaming to send personalized messages to their clients, referral sources, team members, etc. Also, the company leverages online pricing/product to give their referral sources and their customers real-time pricing updates.
LENDERS ONE MORTGAGE COOPERATIVE
www.lendersone.com
Lenders One is the largest mortgage cooperative in the nation. Since its inception in year 2000, Lenders One has provided its members - mortgage bankers - with a business model that offers the advantage of collective buying power. The St. Louis, Mo.-based company leverages its buying power to work with select mortgage investor partners to negotiate better pricing terms. The company implemented a powerful, new mortgage productivity system for its members. The system, known as LOANMax, has three predominant features to help loan officers close more loans, satisfy continuing education requirements and market themselves more powerfully.
MORTGAGE INVESTORS GROUP
www.mortgageinvestorsgroup.com
Knoxville, Tenn.-base Mortgage Investors Group, founded in 1989, pioneered using automated underwriting in 1995. The company already was an approved Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae seller/servicer and FHA/VA lender when the subprime meltdown hit the industry. MIG has grown from $24 million in its first full year of operation to $1.5 billion in 2006. Exiting wholesale has slowed its reaching the $2 billion mark, but the company's retail network in Tennessee and Mississippi continues to grow, as does its Direct Lending Community Banking network and its community banking relationships in six states.
NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
www.navyfcu.org
Navy Federal was an e-mortgage pioneer having been among the first to deliver an e-signed e-note to Fannie Mae. The organization took a step back to automate the point-of-sale and hopes to rollout a complete "e" process from start to finish this year. And in the first quarter of this year the company became a top 10 online originator, doing $765 million, a 127% increase as compared to one year prior. Further, Navy Federal was a top five online retail lender in the first quarter of this year as well.
PRIME ALLIANCE SOLUTIONS
www.primealliancesolutions.com
A conglomerate of prominent credit unions, Fannie Mae and Dexma technology, has paid off for Tukwila, Wash.-based Prime Alliance. The organization has sought to push the envelope further by joining with MortgageClick to introduce their "TestDrive" program to allow new members to try their technology for free for a limited time. With its special Fannie Mae relationship, Prime Alliance members can now document a loan with only the information required by the Desktop Underwriter findings. This simple change allowed for a member to apply for a loan via the Internet, over the phone to a call center representative, or in a short face-to-face meeting and receive a commitment at that time.
SKYLINE FUNDING
www.skylinefunding.net
Encino, Calif.-based Skyline Funding responded to the industry meltdown by going into an acquisition mode, and currently is targeting several competitors to achieve "critical mass for the remnant part of the storm we've been through." Skyline CFO Daniel Shields said only correspondent lenders already leveraging Internet technology efficiently will survive. Skyline has a proprietary LOS system that enables efficient workflow and document management. Skyline's key technology partnerships are for the front end. Skyline uses Interthinx for fraud detection and Optimal Blue for pricing. The company placing a premium on transparency and accuracy.
STONEWATER MORTGAGE
www.stonewatermortgage.com
A new national wholesale lender, StoneWater Mortgage, is introducing a new footprint to the mortgage industry during very trying times. StoneWater's proprietary mortgage banking platform, H2Online, will use Web services to leverage seamless data transfer to best-of-breed providers. For example, StoneWater has contracted Guardian Mortgage Documents to generate all of their disclosures and documents for output to PDF format. One unique feature of the integration is that GMD will return documents to the StoneWater website for closing agent access. Another distinct leverage of technology efficiencies includes GMD developing a custom integration with Mavent Inc., which will provide automated regulatory compliance for all loan products.
TOPDOT MORTGAGE
www.topdot.com
Topdot Mortgage is a national mortgage bank that funds over $2.5 billion in residential, commercial and construction mortgages annually. Topdot has a number of technology platforms that the company has built and/or integrated over the years, which have enable the organization to be more efficient and compliant. For example, Topdot built proprietary systems on both the lead and loan origination side which has made the company's current and future growth possible. In 2007, Topdot began the fist stages of becoming a paperless environment and looks to conclude that project in early 2009.
QUICKEN LOANS
www.quickenloans.com
Once again, Quicken Loans, Livonia, Mich., took the top spot among online retail lenders. The company was also the No. 6 online lender overall in 2007, originating $18 billion, a 22% increase as compared to one year prior. In first quarter of this year Quicken moved up a notch to take the No. 5 spot for total online originations done. Also, in the first quarter of this year Quicken remained the No. 1 online retail lender. This year Quicken has released a financial management tool to borrowers as a value add.
UNIVERSAL AMERICAN MORTGAGE CO.
www.uamc.com
Universal American Mortgage Co. is part of Lennar Financial Services and specializes in supporting the financing needs of Lennar homebuyers. UAMC also operates as Universal American Mortgage Company of California. UAMC is using the on-demand BlitzDocs solution electronic loan submission, underwriting and post-closing investor delivery creating process efficiencies. Using exposed Web services in the BlitzDocs Software as a Service model, UAMC created tight integration between their LOS (Integra Destiny) to facility seamless communication between data and document systems. Communication of docs by fax and overnight express is expensive, which facilitated the change.
WELLS FARGO
www.wellsfargo.com
Wells Fargo's second quarter earnings proved that this tech-savvy lender is surviving the current downturn. The lender's second quarter results included record revenue despite lower earnings. Also, the company's mortgage banking non-interest income nearly doubled from the first quarter. In addition, this year Wells broadened its e-mortgage strategy to align with approved vendors that currently include eLynx, DocuSign, Encomia, Fiserv, SigniaDocs, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services and Wave Systems. Now correspondents can deliver Wells e-docs at the point-of-origination using these approved providers. The strategy is to extend this to include complete e-closings as well.
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