RBC Mortgage also announced the appointment of four divisional managers for its Retail Division. Bill Dawley is divisional manager for the Southeast and is a 14- year veteran of the mortgage industry. He was previously regional manager for Sterling Capital Mortgage. Keith Frachiseur is divisional manager for the Northwest and has been in the mortgage industry for 19 years. He was previously president and founder of Alliance Mortgage. Chuck Jackson is divisional manager for the Southwest and has more than 32 years experience in the mortgage industry. Previously, he was the Southwest regional manager for Sterling Capital Mortgage. Chuck Johnson is divisional manager for the North Central division and brings 13 years experience. He was previously regional manager for the North Central region.

Donald Ogilvie will retire as president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, Washington, D.C. He has been part of the association since 1985. Edward Yingling, currently ABA’s executive vice president, has been appointed as Ogilvie’s successor. Yingling has also been part of the association since 1985, overseeing all government relations activities.

DeDe Colvill, Harry Dressler and Mark Keller have joined eLynx Ltd., Cincinnati. Colvill has been named regional sales manager for the central region where her duties include directing eLynx account management efforts and generating new business. She brings 18 years of experience in sales.

Dressler is eLynx’s new senior project manager and is responsible for managing the development and implementation of new products for the company. He has more than 15 years experience in project management. Keller has been appointed as eLynx’s new implementation engineer and will facilitate the technical setup and implementation of eLynx systems for new customers. He has more than five years of technical experience.

Pam Trombo has joined U.S. Recordings, St. Paul, as systems analyst/programmer. She will be responsible for client and country integration for InteleDoc Plus. Trombo brings 15 years experience as a business analyst/programmer to the company.

Glenn Renner has joined HomeSphere, Golden, Colo., as senior vice president of sales and marketing. He previously served as vice president of architectural marketing HomeSphere’s Cleveland, offices. Renner has 17 years experience in a variety of sales and marketing positions.

David Hellhake joined MortgageHub, Conshohoken, Pa., as executive vice president. He will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company, including all client relations and strategic partnerships. Hellhake has more than 20 years experience in product management. He was previously vice president of product management for SunGuard Data Systems, Wayne, Pa.
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Bankruptcy filings rose from 1,611,268 in the 12-month period ending March 2003 to 1,654,847 in the same 12-month time period in 2004. The number of filings was down slightly from the record 1,661,966 bankruptcy cases filed during fiscal year 2003, the 12-month period ending September 30. Total bankruptcy filings first broke the 1.5 million mark in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2002.

Non-business filings for March 2004 totaled 1,618,062, up 2.8 percent from the total non-business filings of 1,573,720 filings in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2003. The highest number of non-business bankruptcy filings was for fiscal year 2003, when 1,625,813 bankruptcy cases were filed in the 12-month period ending September 30.

Business filings in March 2004 totaled 36,785, down 2.0 percent from the 37,548, business filings in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2003. Filings per authorized bankruptcy judgeship have risen from 2,965 filings per judgeship in March 1992 to 5,108 in March 2004.

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Mortgage lending in Great Britain rose at a record pace in April, The British Bankers' Association reported. According to a story in Reuters, mortgage lending rose 6.4 billion pounds, above the six-month trend of 5.6 billion pounds, and at its fastest pace since BBA records began in 1997, while the number of mortgages approved also rose.

The strong showing has led to speculation that the British housing market could be “overheating,” and that the Bank of England—the economic barometer in the U.K.—could soon raise key interest rates, Reuterssaid.

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Advectis, Atlanta, a provider of paperless origination, underwriting and loan archiving products, announced the addition of Republic Mortgage Insurance Co. to its BlitzDocs Certified Underwriting Provider Program. The BlitzDocs certification program enables contract underwriting service providers to certify to their lender customers that they are fully trained and prepared to deliver those services via the BlitzDocs solution.  

BlitzDocs Certified Underwriting Providers use BlitzDocs-based technology as a key component in delivering contract underwriting services to lenders. It allows lenders to streamline the loan document submission and underwriting process with their brokers or originators.

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Entyre, Ann Arbor, Mich., announced the release of version 2.0 of eMortgageX, designed to give lenders the ability to customize the communication process between all parties in the closing process.

By using the eMortgageX4 closing system, lenders can cut their closing and post closing costs by delivering enhanced, more accurate and compliant closing documents. Using an advanced, open architecture platform and SOAP/XML transfer protocol, the system allows lenders to easily customize the communication process between all the players. X4 allows brokers, closing agents and consumers the ability to collaborate electronically, and to confirm and enforce data accuracy and compliance.

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3t Systems, Denver, a provider of information technology integration products, has partnered with Intelli-Mine, Inc., integrating a business intelligence and decision support platform with its flagship mortgage product, Mortgage Cadence, an enterprise-wide mortgage lending process decisioning engine. The partnership will entail the joint sales of Intelli-Mine's Intelli-Mortgage Business Performance Manager and Mortgage Cadence.
 
Mortgage Cadence delivers enterprise-wide mortgage lending technology from a single production database, providing a flexible and extensible platform upon which lenders can automate and integrate their core business processes. 

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Fitch Ratings, New York, enhanced its performance analytics Web site for U.S. residential mortgage-backed securities by adding more historical information regarding the performance of deals the RMBS group performs surveillance on.

“A constant theme among investors and users of late has been to see a more complete historical framework on existing RMBS transactions,” said Louise Pesano , senior director with Fitch Ratings. “This latest revision to Fitch's RMBS surveillance page is derived purely from investor demand.”

Fitch's RMBS performance analytics  page has also been redesigned to include groupings of information into three sections/tabs: Original Statistics, Class Ratings, and Delinquencies. Class ratings, credit enhancement and pool performance statistics are available for export.
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HUD said the guidelines could help housing providers better understand their obligations and help persons with disabilities better understand their rights regarding the "reasonable accommodations" provision of the Fair Housing Act. HUD said the guidelines could help curb instances of discrimination similar to a recent case in Chino, Calif., where the Hillsborough Village apartments barred the use of scooters and carts inside of the clubhouse where, among other things, residents retrieve their mail. The plaintiff in the case wanted access to the complex clubhouse and asked management to grant an exemption to the "no scooter" rule.

After the apartment management denied the request, the plaintiff contacted HUD, which referred her case to the California agency with which HUD has cooperative agreement. Eventually, the case was settled and the plaintiff was awarded $3,750 in compensation and Hillsborough Village agreed to remove their ban on scooters and carts.

"The reasonable accommodation provision of the Fair Housing Act is an important component of the Act's broader goal of ending the unnecessary exclusion of persons with disabilities from the mainstream of American life," said R. Alexander Acosta, Justice assistant attorney general for civil rights. "The guidelines we are issuing with HUD will be an important aid in helping housing providers and persons with disabilities determine when such accommodations should be provided."

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CWCapital, Needham, Mass., a full-service national lender to the commercial and multifamily real estate industries, announced that it will take over responsibility for investor relations and mezzanine portfolio management activities in the U.S. for all mezzanine products for its parent company, CDP Capital - Real Estate Advisory (CDP Capital - REA), and other institutional clients.

CWCapital assumes all activities related to mezzanine financing, making it a fully integrated mezzanine group. This occurs five months after CWCapital announced its acquisition of Lend Lease Corp.'s mezzanine financing group.
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Acadia acquired a 50 percent interest in the Haygood Shopping Center, Virgina Beach, Va., and Sterling Heights Shopping Center, Sterling Heights, Mich., from Chicago-based Klaff Realty LP for $3.2 million. No financing was needed in this transaction. These assets are part of the portfolio Acadia currently manages from its January 2004 acquisition of the management contracts from Klaff and separate from the formation of the Retailer Controlled Property Venture between Klaff, Lubert-Adler Management Inc., Philadelphia, and Acadia.

Acadia will assume all operational responsibility for the two shopping centers, both of which require redevelopment to maximize the value of the assets as follows.

The Haygood Shopping Center is a 165,000 square foot shopping center currently 69 percent occupied and anchored by Rose's Department Store and Eckerd Drug. Redevelopment of this property could include the addition of a supermarket anchor and the relocation of the drugstore to an outparcel location.

The Sterling Heights Shopping Center totals 141,000 square feet. The property is also 69 percent occupied and is anchored by Burlington Coat Factory. Redevelopment activities will include the complete renovation of the property and the re-leasing of the current vacancies.

Acadia in conjunction with Noddle Development Company, Omaha, Neb., purchased the Tarrytown Centre in Westchester, N.Y. for $5.3 million in cash. A Grand Union supermarket anchored the 35,000 square foot property. The redeveloped property will include a 15,000 square foot Walgreen's drugstore, a 10,000 square foot junior anchor with the balance of space leased to shop tenants.

For all of the properties, Acadia anticipates to generate leveraged returns in excess of 15 percent before fees and promotes.
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The toll-free call-in number is 1-877-356-8667, and the conference ID is 7717561. Please ask to join Gerald Aust's call with the Mortgage Bankers Association. Marsha Williams, chair of the committee, will moderate the call.

This call is open to MBA members only and is closed to the media. For more information go to MBA’s State/Local Web page.
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At MBA's eMortgage Workshop, you’ll learn skills and techniques, not just discuss them. Come away with a practical understanding of several key technologies for the fledgling electronic mortgage industry and how they can be applied to advance your business, including:

• Introducing new expanded business content added for technical managers.
• Serve your industry with the latest technology and be one step ahead of the rest.

Who should attend? This workshop is targeted toward senior managers in technology and operations on the origination side, as well as developers, managers and executives who must make informed decisions on how to procure and deploy technology solutions within and outside of their organizations to save money and increase efficiencies as smoothly as possible.

The conference features two tracks. The Business Track examines Web-based business and electronic mortgage issues such as eRecording, eNotarization and eMortgageROI (return on investment). The Technology Track explores topics such as XML, SMART Docs, Web services, ePackaging and eMessaging.  General sessions cover case studies and includes a “final exam.”

Attendees can earn 6 points toward the MBA's Certified Mortgage Technologist and Certified Mortgage Banker designations.

For more information, go to the conference Web site.
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With more than $16.5 billion in member savings and $13.6 billion in loans outstanding, NFCU made a conscious effort in the mid-1990s to move from a paper environment to an electronic one, said Lou Jennings, executive vice president of the lending department at NFCU. The motivation, however, was not for cost savings but member service.

“Our goal is to, quite frankly, give the best service possible to our members, and we think the best way to do that is of course to give them a good rate and no junk fees, but also to process the loan to closing as quickly as we possibly can,” Jennings said. “The emortgage initiative is another step for us in continuing to look for quicker and better ways to do the mortgage process.”

Credit unions enjoy loyal memberships, a staff that takes loan applications at a centralized location and a clientele that provides verification based, in part, on eligibility for the credit union.

“A lot of mortgage lenders like the paper,” Jennings said. “I’ve had them tell me they like to see paper. They’re not enamored with point of sale approvals or underwriting. A lot of this has to do with concerns of fraud and we don’t have that concern here.”

Johnna Cooper, associate vice president of products and compliance at NFCU, speaks to mortgage lenders about NFCU’s implementation of emortgages. She said lenders mention integration issues with warehouse lenders, loan officers and mortgage originators. Also, mortgage brokers and correspondent lenders do not necessarily know the investors they will be selling the loan to at origination, making it more difficult for a paperless mortgage.

“We don’t really have that issue since all of our applications originate either on our Web site or in our call center,” Cooper said.

NFCU works off of the UniFi Pro Mortgage Loan Origination and Processing System from Fiserv Lending Solutions, Lake Mary, Fla. Fiserv integrates from its loan origination system (LOS) into the emortgage platform, developed by NFCU’s emortgage team that included Fiserv and NFCU programmers. Prior to the emortgage team, in 2000, Bridgespan provided the platform until the company moved out of the emortgage business. Fannie Mae used the Bridgespan platform until 2000 until the NFCU emortgage team started to work again on the platform.

Fiserv started working with NFCU prior to 2000 and integrated its LOS to pull basic member information from NFCU’s “central information file” or database and automatically populate the application.

NFCU equity loans are paperless and some mortgage loans, such as refinances, are paperless. The equity and refinance loans could include membership data that automatically populates the application rather than have the call center staff rekey information into the application.

“As that call comes in, we go off and pull that information in,” said Ed McWilliams, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Fiserv. “By the time the operator answers the call and asks the name, we pull that information right in and they have it right there when they answer the phone.”

McWilliams said Fiserv eliminated the keying of data more than once. “Once you have the name and address in, you can use it among all the systems. You don’t have to reenter data,” he said.

The data also creates a “best fit analysis” between products, pricing and member information which feeds in throughout the system. The system takes the loan from origination to closing and eventually into NFCU’s loan servicing system.

“The actual system tends to be more integrated into their products, as we’ve done at Navy [FCU] because they have more centralized information,” McWilliams said. “It’s just an evolution that credit unions tend to be in more than banks.”

Williams said that in a mortgage company, however, higher volume and loan officers with a focus only on mortgages, faster performance issues could take on higher priority.

“They’re different environments,” McWilliams said. “They all originate loans, but what’s important to them, whether it’s speed or a user-friendly system or more integration into products, varies among them.”

Pulling credit and flood certifications electronically, and using automated valuation models (AVMs) help keep the loan from becoming a paper file. And, although financial statements from borrowers, such as pay stubs and tax returns could come in paper, they would not be in the electronic closing package sent to the settlement agent. NFCU scans any paper items into an image for its files after the loan closes.

“We have the technology that allows us to process and close the loan without the use of paper,” Jennings said. “You can do that in the system. The member has a completely paperless experience.”

But some mortgages still need paper during processing, such as full appraisals that some appraisers could not do because they do not have the proper tools. Although Fiserv’s UniFi Pro LOS could send an interface to vendors with requests for information and the vendor could return it with the data, then the system could put the data into the database. But McWilliams said many small appraisal companies do not have that capability.

“Big field service providers, such as credit bureaus, flood and title, that’s all automated,” McWilliams said. “Appraisal companies tend to be the exception to that because you have a lot of small appraisal companies and they physically have to go out in most cases and do an appraisal, as opposed to an automated evaluation which is getting very popular in the home equity business.” 

Jennings said NFCU continues to provide no-doc loans and point-of-sale approvals on loans, and the credit union continues to review its history, take out extraneous procedures and examine processes to help streamline a mortgage. But he noted that despite the gains, members still need to print out the note because the real challenge is working with various jurisdictions to electronically record a mortgage.

Some jurisdictions need to make a monetary investment in the technology and tight county budgets prevent movement forward from some areas that want to pursue electronic recordings. According to the Property Records Industry Association (PRIA), 35 jurisdictions have electronic recording capabilities and no more than six counties record closing documents.

“It’s a tough sell,” Jennings said. “We’re a long way from a society that readily accepts the emortgage.”

However, PRIA expects 20 more counties to do e-recordings this year. Meanwhile, NFCU has 58 emortgage closings in its books and the credit union plans to do more.

Some NFCU emortgages funded within two hours as the settlement agent sent the electronic mortgage note, or e-note, electronically to Fannie Mae. The GSE, however, does not deliver any better pricing to NFCU, albeit the loan could move faster into securitization through electronic delivery.

Still, the cost savings on mortgages sold electronically range from $230 to $250 per loan at NFCU. A paper note could take several days to mail and delivering a paper loan could take a couple of weeks as opposed to a couple of hours, Jennings said. Also, NFCU provides a $75 rebate to any members who elect to have an emortgage.

“Unfortunately, we’re not doing that many [emortgages] but there are certainly economies of scale,” Jennings said.

But Cooper hopes to increase the emortgages to between 30 and 50 per month following some enhancements that took place this month.

“The next big thing we’re working on is electronic disclosures to the consumer,” Cooper said. “We call it ‘three-day paper.’ We’re delivering those electronically to our members by the end of summer.”
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