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Mortgage News from Mortgage & Finance News magazine

News: Friday Harbor partners with Waterstone Mortgage to expand underwriting capacity

Mortgage and Finance News: (SEATTLE, Wash.) Friday Harbor, an AI-powered platform that helps loan officers assemble complete and compliant loan files in real time, today announced that Waterstone Mortgage has implemented its AI pre-underwriting platform to strengthen file quality and expand underwriting capacity across the lender's nationwide retail operation.

News: Dark Matter Technologies integrates Snapdocs with its Empower LOS to power seamless digital closings

Mortgage and Finance News: (JACKSONVILLE, Fla.) Dark Matter Technologies (Dark Matter®), an innovative leader in mortgage technology, today announced a new integration between its Empower® loan origination system (LOS) and Snapdocs, the mortgage industry's leading digital closing platform. Through the seamless, two-way integration, closing teams can generate orders, track transaction progress with real-time status updates and automate key closing and funding workflows, all without leaving their system of record.

News: Vertyx Introduces Homeowner Navigator, Delivering Personalized Intelligent Insights and Omnichannel Engagement for Modern Homeownership

Mortgage and Finance News: (NEW YORK, N.Y.) Vertyx, a provider of intelligent mortgage servicing technology built for enhanced portfolio performance, today announced Homeowner Navigator, a platform providing AI-driven homeowner insights and omnichannel engagement with borrowers. The platform is designed to help mortgage servicers maintain visibility into borrower needs after closing, when opportunities to support retention, recapture and broader relationship growth are often harder to identify.

News: MarketWise Advisors study finds mortgage lenders increase efficiency by over $1,000 per loan with Optimal Blue

Mortgage and Finance News: (PLANO, Texas) Optimal Blue today announced key results of an independent analysis by consulting advisory firm MarketWise Advisors LLC quantifying the operational and financial efficiencies of its end-to-end capital markets platform and the significant value it generates per loan. The study found that mortgage lenders using Optimal Blue technology are more efficient and competitive. Optimal Blue mortgage lenders report an average net financial benefit of $1,006 per loan, reflecting measurable gains in execution quality, error reduction, automation and operational efficiency

News: Argyle launches unified 3-in-1 Verification Suite for mortgage lenders

Mortgage and Finance News: (NEW YORK CITY, N.Y.) Argyle today announced the launch of its 3-in-1 Verification Suite, a unified verification product that brings verification of income (VOI), verification of employment (VOE) and verification of assets (VOA) together in a single, consumer-permissioned workflow. The consolidated Verification Suite enables mortgage lenders to manage multiple verification types through one interface, reducing the operational complexity of working across multiple vendors, integrations and contracts.

News: Floify powers launch of Timberline Mortgage

Mortgage and Finance News: (BOULDER, Colo.) Floify, the mortgage industry's leading point-of-sale (POS) solution, today announced that Timberline Bank has selected its platform to power its recently launched mortgage division. Founded in 2004, Timberline Bank is a Colorado-based community bank serving customers across western Colorado.

News: The Mortgage Collaborative launches enhanced benchmarking platform under new TMC Insight brand

Mortgage and Finance News: (SAN DIEGO, Calif.) The Mortgage Collaborative (TMC), the nation's largest independent cooperative network for mortgage lenders, announced enhancements to its benchmarking platform and a rebrand from Benchmark to TMC Insight, delivering expanded dashboards and peer performance analysis for mortgage lenders.

News: FirstClose Unveils XpressEquity with Enhanced Encompass Integration to Deliver an End-to-End Home Equity Platform Powered by Intelligent Automation

Mortgage and Finance News: (AUSTIN, Texas) FirstClose™, a leading fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, today announced the rebrand of its point-of-sale (POS) experience as XpressEquity, along with a refreshed Encompass® by ICE Mortgage Technology® integration that delivers a streamlined, end-to-end digital workflow for home equity originations.

News: iEmergent introduces free webinar series to help lenders turn market data into mortgage growth

Mortgage and Finance News: (DES MOINES, Iowa) iEmergent, a forecasting and advisory services firm for the financial services, mortgage and real estate industries, today announced a new webinar series, "From Gaps to Growth: A Data-Driven Roadmap to Increase Production." The free, multi-episode series will help mortgage lenders navigate an increasingly complex mortgage environment and translate market intelligence into practical strategies for sustainable origination growth.

News: Floify launches Dynamic Apps 2.0, enabling lenders to create fully customizable loan applications

Mortgage and Finance News: (BOULDER, Colo.) Floify, the mortgage industry's leading point-of-sale (POS) solution, today announced the release of Dynamic Apps 2.0, a major platform enhancement that allows lenders to create fully customizable loan applications tailored to specific loan purposes, borrower scenarios and business workflows without relying on engineering resources or third-party integrations.

News: Optimal Blue report: Purchase demand rebounds as mortgage market finds balance

Mortgage and Finance News: (PLANO, Texas) Optimal Blue today released its February 2026 Market Advantage mortgage data report, showing a meaningful improvement in lock activity as lower mortgage rates helped bring purchase borrowers back into the market. Total rate-lock volume rose 9% month over month (MoM) and was nearly 40% higher year over year (YoY).

News: Dovenmuehle earns Fannie Mae STAR award for servicing excellence for the seventh time

Mortgage and Finance News: (LAKE ZURICH, Ill.) Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc. (DMI), a leading mortgage subservicing company, announced today that Fannie Mae has again honored the company with their Servicer Total Achievement and Rewards™ (STAR™) Servicer Award for outstanding servicing performance during the 2025 program year. This is the seventh occasion Fannie Mae has recognized DMI for servicing excellence.

News: Optimal Blue to host 2027 Summit February 1-3 in Scottsdale

Mortgage and Finance News: (PLANO, Texas) Optimal Blue today announced it will host its 2027 Optimal Blue Summit February 1-3 at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona. The annual event convenes Optimal Blue clients, integration partners and capital markets leaders from across the mortgage industry for three days of insight, collaboration and forward-looking strategy.

News: Dark Matter Technologies enables secure AI agents inside the Empower LOS for regulated lending

Mortgage and Finance News: (JACKSONVILLE, Fla.) Dark Matter Technologies (Dark Matter®), an innovative leader in mortgage technology, today announced the launch of a new capability on the Dark Matter Developer Platform, enabling lenders to use AI agents securely within the regulated mortgage environment.

News: Friday Harbor introduces dynamic pre-underwriting to help LOs structure deals that qualify and close

Mortgage and Finance News: (SEATTLE, Wash.) Friday Harbor, an AI pre-underwriting platform that helps loan officers assemble complete and compliant loan files in real time, today announced the launch of Income and Asset Sandbox, a new set of capabilities that allows lending teams to structure income and asset decisions in real time without committing changes prematurely or stepping outside program guidelines. The capabilities are designed to help loan officers structure deals that qualify and close earlier in the origination process.

News: Industry-first AI/ML-powered forecasting tool headlines extensive lineup of mortgage capital markets innovations unveiled at 2026 Optimal Blue Summit

Mortgage and Finance News: (PLANO, Texas) Optimal Blue today announced Virtual Economist, the first on-demand forecasting tool for mortgage capital markets leaders powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), as the centerpiece of nine platform advancements unveiled at the company's 2026 Summit. Together, the innovations further unify the capital markets profitability experience by connecting forecasting, pricing, hedging, competitive benchmarking and workflow execution within a single, end-to-end platform.

News: Vertyx and Great Lakes Credit Union launch CUSO to support modernized mortgage servicing for credit unions

Mortgage and Finance News: (BANNOCKBURN, Ill., and NEW YORK, N.Y.) Vertyx, a provider of intelligent mortgage servicing technology built for enhanced portfolio performance, today announced it has partnered with Great Lakes Credit Union (GLCU), through its CUSO holding company GLCU Holdings LLC, to launch Vertyx CUSO LLC, a newly formed credit union service organization (CUSO) dedicated to transforming mortgage servicing with a member-first philosophy and shared, credit union focused technology.

News: Dovenmuehle’s 2025 SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type 2 reports underscore high data security standards and robust internal controls

Mortgage and Finance News: (LAKE ZURICH, Ill.) Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc., a leading mortgage subservicing company, today announced it has successfully completed its 2025 Service Organization Control (SOC) 1® Type 2 and SOC 2® Type 2 audits. The independent examinations, conducted by public accounting and business advisory firm Plante Moran, PLLC, confirm that Dovenmuehle's internal controls, operational processes and information security practices meet stringent standards for financial reporting integrity and the safeguarding of client data.

News: Click n’ Close Names Rachel Fatino Director of Correspondent Operations

Mortgage and Finance News: (ADDISON, Texas) Click n' Close, a multi-state mortgage lender, today announced that mortgage industry veteran Rachel Fatino has joined the company as director of correspondent operations. In this role, Fatino will lead pipeline strategy, operational performance and partner engagement initiatives to support continued growth across the correspondent channel.

News: FirstClose and TruStage form partnership to accelerate dynamic credit union lending documentation

Mortgage and Finance News: (AUSTIN, Texas) FirstClose™, Inc., a leading fintech provider of data and workflow solutions for mortgage and home equity lenders nationwide, today announced a strategic partnership with TruStage to embed TruStage's dynamic document engine within the FirstClose platform.

News: ACES Q3 2025 Mortgage QC Industry Trends Report shows concentrated rise in critical defects as income and compliance findings increase

Mortgage and Finance News: (DENVER, Colo.) ACES Quality Management® (ACES), the leading provider of enterprise quality management and control software for the financial services industry, today announced the release of its quarterly ACES Mortgage QC Industry Trends Report covering Q3 2025. The report analyzes post-closing quality control data derived from the ACES Quality Management & Control® software.

News: OCCU selects Floify to support scalable, member-centric lending

Mortgage and Finance News: (BOULDER, Colo.) Floify, the mortgage industry's leading point-of-sale (POS) solution, today announced that OCCU has selected Floify to support its next phase of member-centric lending and long-term growth. OCCU is a member-owned, not-for-profit credit union based in Eugene, Oregon, with more than 284,000 members.

News: Vertyx to showcase intelligent loan servicing technology at MBA Servicing Solutions Conference & Expo

Mortgage and Finance News: (NEW YORK, N.Y.) Vertyx, a provider of intelligent mortgage servicing technology built for enhanced portfolio performance, today announced that company Co-Founders Ayo Opeyemi and Moyin Opeyemi will participate in a live demo session during the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) Servicing Solutions Conference & Expo, which runs from Feb. 16-19., 2026.

News: Optimal Blue report: Sub-6% rates spark refinance surge early in 2026

Mortgage and Finance News: (PLANO, Texas) Optimal Blue today released its January 2026 Market Advantage mortgage data report, showing a strong start to the year as falling rates drove a sharp increase in refinance activity. Total rate-lock volume rose 16% month over month (MoM) and finished January 36% higher year over year (YoY), led by a surge in rate-and-term refinances, which climbed 50% from December and more than 400% compared with January 2025.

News: The Mortgage Collaborative and Mortgage Bankers Association announce partnership agreement

Mortgage and Finance News: (SAN DIEGO, Calif.) The Mortgage Collaborative (TMC), the nation's largest independent cooperative network for mortgage lenders and the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the national association representing the real estate finance industry, announced today that they have entered into a strategic partnership to expand advocacy, education and engagement opportunities for their members.

News: The Big Picture webcast to cover policy, compliance, lender strategy and digital transformation in February

Mortgage and Finance News: (CLEVELAND, Ohio) Top mortgage industry webcast The Big Picture, broadcast live every Thursday at 3 p.m. ET, announced its February lineup of guests, representing a broad swath of expertise from across the mortgage industry. Co-hosted by mortgage business consultant and executive coach Rich Swerbinsky and capital markets authority Rob Chrisman, author of the widely read Chrisman Commentary newsletter, the webcast delivers timely, thought-provoking conversations with mortgage professionals, innovators and thought leaders.

News: Vertyx caps a year of accelerated growth and mortgage servicing technology market expansion

Mortgage and Finance News: (NEW YORK, N.Y.) Vertyx, a provider of intelligent mortgage servicing technology built for enhanced portfolio performance, today announced the completion of a milestone year marked by significant market expansion, increased platform adoption and continued innovation across compliance, security and community engagement.

News: Dovenmuehle maintains FHA Tier 1 rating from HUD’s Tier Ranking System (TRS) II Scorecard throughout 2025

Mortgage and Finance News: (LAKE ZURICH, Ill.) Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc. (DMI), a leading mortgage subservicing company, announced today that it maintained a Tier 1 Rating from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) throughout 2025. This quarterly rating was awarded for Dovenmuehle's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) servicing performance under HUD's Tier Ranking System II (TRS II).

News: ACES Quality Management’s Sharon Reichhardt Selected to Moderate Session at 2026 MBA Servicing Solutions Conference

Mortgage and Finance News: (DENVER, Colo.) ACES Quality Management® (ACES), the leading provider of enterprise quality management and control software for the financial services industry, announced that Sharon Reichhardt, executive vice president of operations, has been selected to speak at the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Servicing Solutions Conference, taking place Feb. 16-19, 2026, in Dallas.

News: Elevate, Dark Matter Technologies’ servicing platform, gains momentum with new signings and technology enhancements

Mortgage and Finance News: (JACKSONVILLE, Fla.) Dark Matter Technologies (Dark Matter®), an innovative leader in mortgage technology, today announced continued client momentum that includes a multi-year renewal with Arbor Bank and a new client signing with Covey Financial, as well as tighter integration of its Elevate℠ Loan Servicing Solution (Elevate) and the Empower® loan origination system (LOS).