Tag: Product & Pricing

Optimal Blue Achieves 1,000 PPE Client Milestone

— Dramatic increase in platform adoption leads to early completion of long-term business goal —

Optimal Blue, a leading provider of secondary marketing solutions and data services in the mortgage industry, announced the recent achievement of a significant milestone more than one year earlier than originally anticipated. With the recent signing of Houston Federal Credit Union in mid-July, Optimal Blue crossed the 1,000-client threshold with its Product & Pricing Solution, the industry’s leading solution in the mortgage technology categories often referred to as secondary marketing or PPE automation.

“We are excited for the opportunity to work with Houston FCU—our 1,000th PPE client. We look forward to providing them with the innovative capabilities of our secondary marketing platform that so many mortgage lenders leverage to create compelling results,” said Scott Happ, CEO of Optimal Blue. “Achieving this exclusive industry milestone earlier than we anticipated is a strong testament to the incredible focus, commitment, and drive maintained by each and every Optimal Blue team member.”

Historic low rates, record origination volumes, market volatility, and intense competitive pressures have created a unique set of challenges and opportunities for today’s mortgage lenders, often leading them to search for automation platforms that create sustainable, long-term competitive advantages. As a result, Optimal Blue’s Marketplace Platform—the mortgage industry’s dominant secondary marketing automation platform that houses its Product & Pricing Solution—has experienced a dramatic increase in adoption and set record levels of activity. This year, Optimal Blue and their clients collectively surpassed every transaction metric currently tracked by the company, including:

Total BESTX™ Rate Quotes: Optimal Blue clients completed a total of nearly 280 million rate quotes in the first seven months of 2020, reflecting a 71% increase in activity over the same time period in 2019.

Total Rate Lock Volume: Over $195 billion in rate locks were completed on the Optimal Blue platform in July 2020, the highest level of monthly volume in the company’s history. Additionally, Optimal Blue clients completed more than $1 trillion in rate locks in the first seven months of 2020, more than doubling rate lock volume over the same time period in 2019.

Total Loan Trade Volume: Over $11.5 billion in loan trades were completed on the Optimal Blue platform in July 2020, 20% greater than the next highest month. The company has facilitated more than $57 billion in loan trades in the first seven months of 2020.

“Last year, 35% of all mortgage transactions completed nationwide were locked on the Optimal Blue platform by our impressive network of lender clients,” explained Happ. “We are humbled by the trust and confidence our clients place in Optimal Blue to facilitate those transactions, and we applaud their success and incredible growth.”

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

SimpleNexus and Optimal Blue Enhance Integration to Deliver Fully Integrated Mobile Rate-Locking Solution

SimpleNexus, developer of the leading digital mortgage platform for loan officers, borrowers and real estate agents, today announced significant enhancements to its integration with Optimal Blue, the leading provider of secondary marketing solutions and data services in the mortgage industry. The combined solution is the industry’s first to enable loan originators to lock loan pricing from a mobile device.

Now, mutual customers of SimpleNexus and Optimal Blue can run pricing scenarios and request rate locks directly from the SimpleNexus mobile or web application. Two-way data integration between SimpleNexus, Optimal Blue and the lender’s loan origination system streamlines the lock request process to minimize manual data entry, advancing loan originators straight to the results page whenever possible.

“Loan pricing can change throughout the day with little advance warning, especially in today’s turbulent market,” said SimpleNexus COO Ben Miller. “The ability to rapidly lock a loan from a mobile device puts loan originators at a tremendous advantage, enabling them to more effectively manage high volume and close more deals.”

Optimal Blue has seen record-setting system volume every month since February 2020, with clients using its enterprise product eligibility and pricing engine to lock well over $1 trillion in mortgage volume in the last 12 months alone.

“To handle today’s unprecedented level of activity, lenders need to leverage integrations that create efficiencies and make rate locking processes more scalable and effective” explained Optimal Blue Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Alliances Bob Brandt. “Optimal Blue’s integration with SimpleNexus puts accurate mortgage rates at the fingertips of borrowers and loan officers — no matter what device they’re using.”

For more information, visit https://simplenexus.com/sn/partners/optimal-blue/.

ABOUT SimpleNexus, LLC

SimpleNexus is the digital mortgage platform that enables lenders to originate and process loans from anywhere. The company’s best-in-class, easy-to-use app connects loan officers to their borrowers and real estate agents to easily communicate and exchange data in a single location throughout the entire loan life cycle. Loan officers can manage their loan pipelines, order credit, run pricing, send pre-approvals and sign disclosures — all on the go.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR SimpleNexus
Leslie Colley
DepthPR
(404) 390-3830
Leslie@DepthPR.com

PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Ellie Mae and Optimal Blue Enhance Secondary Marketing Integrations to Create End-to-End User Experience

Ellie Mae®, the leading cloud-based loan origination platform for the mortgage industry, announced today the expansion of the strategic partnership with Optimal Blue®, the leading secondary marketing automation platform in the mortgage industry. The expansion includes the collaboration on multiple next-generation, API-based integrations between the Ellie Mae Digital Lending Platform and the Optimal Blue’s Marketplace Platform™ – specifically the company’s flagship Product & Pricing, Hedge Analytics, and Loan Trading solutions. Additionally, Optimal Blue’s Hedge Analytics and Loan Trading solutions now join Optimal Blue’s Product & Pricing as recommended solutions in the Ellie Mae Marketplace™.

Focused on creating a seamless, end-to-end workflow between lenders and investors, Ellie Mae and Optimal Blue are underway with new initiatives to rethink how to best leverage Ellie Mae’s Digital Lending Platform and Optimal Blue’s industry-leading pricing, hedging, and loan trading capabilities to benefit both sellers and Investors. Their collective efforts will create new and further enhance existing integrations between Optimal Blue and Encompass Consumer Connect®, Encompass LO Connect®, Encompass TPO Connect®, and Encompass Investor Connect® solutions that will enable a completely automated data and document exchange between their lender and investor clients. The companies plan to collaborate on these new integrations and efficient workflow improvements throughout 2020.

“Ellie Mae is thrilled about the expansion of our partnership with Optimal Blue,” said Parvesh Sahi, senior vice president, business development for Ellie Mae. “Ellie Mae is committed to enabling further innovation on the Ellie Mae Digital Lending Platform with industry-leading partners like Optimal Blue. This investment to deepen our partnership enables both originators and the purchasers of mortgage loans originated on Encompass to benefit from Optimal Blue’s broad secondary marketing capabilities.”

“Optimal Blue is proud of the work we have done over the past several years to strengthen our Ellie Mae partnership,” explained Scott Happ, President & Chief Executive Officer of Optimal Blue. “Increasing the joint value proposition to our mutual clients by building deeper and more meaningful pricing, hedging, and trading integrations between our platforms to create more efficient workflows is very exciting news for Optimal Blue, Ellie Mae, and our clients.”

ABOUT ELLIE MAE
Ellie Mae is the leading cloud-based loan origination platform provider for the mortgage industry. Ellie Mae’s technology solutions enable lenders to originate more loans, reduce origination costs, and shorten the time to close, all while ensuring the highest levels of compliance, quality and efficiency. EllieMae.com or call 877.355.4362 to learn more.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

PRESS CONTACT FOR ELLIE MAE
Erica Bigley
Ellie Mae, Inc.
(925) 227-5913
Erica.Bigley@elliemae.com

Caitlin Coffee
Allison+Partners
(312) 635-8204
EllieMae@allisonpr.com

© 2020 Ellie Mae, Inc. Ellie Mae®, Encompass®, AllRegs®, Mavent®, Velocify®, the Ellie Mae logo and other trademarks or service marks of Ellie Mae, Inc. appearing herein are the property of Ellie Mae, Inc. or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Other company and product names may be trademarks or copyrights of their respective owners.

Roostify Leverages Optimal Blue to Automate Buyer Approvals Throughout Digital Mortgage Lending Experience

— Roostify expands existing partnership to incorporate industry-leading product and pricing solution into platform —

Roostify, the nation’s most trusted digital lending platform, today announced an expanded relationship with Optimal Blue, the leading provider of secondary marketing automation to the mortgage industry. The enhanced functionality obtained through this collaborative partnership will enable Roostify to further automate the digital lending experience for their clients by embedding Optimal Blue’s comprehensive pricing capabilities directly into their platform. Roostify has leveraged Optimal Blue’s product eligibility and pricing (PPE) technology to support lead generation efforts since 2016. Now, the enhanced integration enables their digital lending platform to deliver Optimal Blue’s robust, accurate pricing options directly to loan officers and borrowers, without ever leaving the Roostify environment.

The enhanced integration enables loan officers to access product and pricing information, and seamlessly share this data with borrowers at any time, from anywhere, through a fully mobile-optimized solution. The ability to access this data at the immediate point of need equips users with added flexibility and ultimately increases loan officer productivity and borrower engagement.

“Optimal Blue is committed to working with technology-forward partners that truly understand the incredible value of delivering accurate product and pricing to all relevant access points within the loan lifecycle,” explained Bob Brandt, vice president of marketing and strategic alliances at Optimal Blue. “We are pleased to expand our relationship with Roostify as they leverage our robust APIs to improve the digital mortgage experience for lenders and their clients.”

“Our partnership with Optimal Blue has been a significant value add for several years, starting with lead generation,” said Rajesh Bhat, co-founder and chief executive officer of Roostify. “With the enhanced integration of their PPE technology into our platform, we now have real-time borrower approval that elevates the customer experience and is best in class.”

ABOUT ROOSTIFY
Founded by consumers looking for a better way to buy a home, Roostify leads the industry in delivering accelerated and transparent digital lending experiences, processing nearly $20 billion a month in loans. From enterprise banks to independent mortgage lenders, lenders across the United States rely on Roostify to speed up closings, reduce risk and unnecessary work, and improve their customers’ lending experience. The company’s highly secure, future-proof lending platform is trusted by some of the world’s largest lenders. For more information, please visit www.roostify.com or follow them on social media at LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/company/roostify) or Twitter (@Roostify).

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

PRESS CONTACT FOR ROOSTIFY
Alyson Austin
Gaffney Austin, LLC
(949) 403-0484
alyson@gaffneyaustin.com

Optimal Blue Automates the Entire Secondary Marketing Process

— The company’s suite of products provide a transparent process for buyers and sellers —

The last 18 months have seen a significant shift in both the primary and secondary mortgage markets. Facing shrinking loan volume and compressed margins, lenders have broadened their loan products for borrowers who fall outside of traditional government or conforming guidelines, prompting investors to add programs that incorporate these loans.

But these new opportunities present real challenges. The number of investors has grown significantly since the financial crisis, with 150 organizations now actively buying loans. And the types of loans available for purchase have also multiplied. Combined, these factors have compounded the complexity of the secondary marketing function, demanding sophisticated automation for accurate content management and execution.

Fortunately, Optimal Blue has spent the last several years relentlessly auto-mating the entire secondary marketing process — from content to commitment, and everything in between — and can meet these challenges head-on.

Optimal Blue, founded in 2002, provides not only industry-leading solutions for originators and investors but also an enterprise-level, end-to-end platform that processes more than $750 billion worth of transactions each year. Its Digital Mortgage Marketplace connects mortgage buyers and sellers in an efficient, transparent process that facilitates a broad set of secondary market interactions.

The company’s view into the data associated with these transactions led it to develop the Optimal Blue Mortgage Market Indices (OBMMI) to provide mortgage and finance professionals and market participants with greater visibility into key drivers of mortgage pricing. Based on actual locked rates with consumers across more than 35% of all mortgage transactions nationwide, OBMMI provide the most extensive and accurate interactive analysis of pricing ever conducted in the mortgage industry.

OBMMI aggregates data from 2 million transactions a year between 800 lenders, 3,000 brokers, and 200 buyers of loans and synthesizes that data into 16 primary and detailed mortgage rate indices. Updated daily through a robust API, the indices can be compared with each other to isolate specific market movements and spot trends.

“For close to two decades, Optimal Blue has led the mortgage industry with pricing automation technology designed to facilitate transactions between consumers and lenders,” explained Bob Brandt, vice president of marketing and alliances at Optimal Blue. “Complete with the industry’s largest product eligibility and pricing library, and backed by an unparalleled commitment to accuracy, Optimal Blue’s platform ensures that consumers are presented with the best-fit financing alternatives and that lenders consistently deliver the best price.”

Optimal Blue continues to evolve its platform, providing lenders and investors with inspired technology that automates key functions of the secondary marketing process.

AUTOMATING THE SECONDARY MARKETING FUNCTION

Product Eligibility & Pricing

Optimal Blue is the largest product eligibility and pricing (PPE) provider in the industry, serving more than 50% of the market and processing $600 billion worth of rate locks every year. The company has made significant investments to automate this functionality and the result is a robust system that delivers a single source of compliant pricing with 99.995% accuracy, making Optimal Blue’s PPE the system of record for the mortgage industry.

That accuracy is a hallmark of Optimal Blue, which uses an extensive set of product filters to identify applicable loan programs and then evaluates best execution pricing among eligible products. This capability is even more critical given the growing number of non-QM loan products in the market.

In addition to the execution, content, and margin management that Optimal Blue’s flagship PPE is known for, the company recently rolled out a new innovation — a “lights-out” lock desk functionality that can automatically lock the loan, change the lock, change the product type, grant exceptions, and more.

“When it comes to secondary marketing, the lock desk is a high-cost function,” said Optimal Blue CEO, Scott Happ. “We’ve automated the entire process. Lenders can configure auto-accept policies for locking and relocking products with characteristics that don’t require a manual touch, thereby reducing lock desk involvement in scenarios where automated policies can do the work instead.”

Hedging

Optimal Blue’s sophisticated hedge advisory and analytics platform integrates seamlessly with its PPE and digital loan trading platforms. This automated collaboration provides Optimal Blue clients with a tremendous competitive advantage.

First, interest rate locks from the PPE flow into the pipeline in real time, ensuring that the hedge position is always fully updated. Second, the broadest possible set of executions is available, ensuring that lenders will always discover the best price.

In addition, automating the loan trading and committing process through the Resitrader system reduces costs and error rates. “By combining exceptional analytics with unmatched system integration, Optimal Blue is uniquely positioned to help lenders succeed when deploying a mandatory execution strategy,” Happ said.

Loan Trading

In July 2018, Optimal Blue acquired Resitrader, creating the mortgage industry’s largest mortgage loan trading platform. Resitrader’s interactive trading environment enables buyers, sellers, and their advisors to transact in real time using an auction process and replaces the widely-used method of exchanging bid tapes via email.

The solution also helps traders optimize executions by supporting shadow-bidding, the posting of axes, chat-based communication, and color reports. Resitrader has achieved remarkable success with its trading platform over the past year, recording a 400% increase in transactions.

Optimal Blue has made it easy for investors to use Resitrader through the recent launch of another robust API designed to integrate with investors’ existing, internal systems. The APIs embed and trigger the market-leading capabilities of Resitrader into whatever trading application the investor is currently using, similar to the API plug-in capability offered through Optimal Blue’s PPE.

“Most clients are perfectly fine with coming into the Resitrader system to do their business,” explained Happ. “However, the largest investors look to our highly functional and real-time APIs to integrate with their own infrastructure and technology, so they are still able to take advantage of the benefits of the Resitrader platform. This is just another step for us to integrate into investor and origination businesses to maximize the efficiencies they require.”

Social Media Platform

Social media is an extremely powerful business development tool for lenders and Optimal Blue provides the only fully automated social media compliance platform designed specifically for the mortgage industry. The comprehensive platform enables lenders to manage the social media activities of loan officers through audits, monitoring, and collaboration. The audits are point-in-time, comprehensive reviews, while automated monitoring constantly evaluates social activity and proactively identifies trigger terms and keywords to isolate compliance concerns requiring remediation.

This piece was originally featured on HousingWire.com.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Optimal Blue’s Product and Pricing Becomes the Mortgage Industry’s System of Record

— The company’s PPE network now includes more than 2,000 clients —

Over the last two years, Optimal Blue has strategically acquired several companies, built an extensive API network, and invested heavily in automation and technology with one goal in mind: to create an entirely automated secondary marketing ecosystem for mortgage originators and investors, as well as the technology providers they rely upon every day.

Those efforts have established Optimal Blue’s product and pricing as the mortgage industry’s system of record — from leads at the beginning of the process to hedging and selling into the secondary market — approximately one of every three mortgages is facilitated by the company’s Digital Mortgage Marketplace.

Optimal Blue’s recent acquisition of LoanLogics’ PPE business unit, LoanDecisions, is just the latest in a series of strategic buys, including its purchase of Comergence in 2017 and Resitrader earlier this year.

Comergence enables Optimal Blue to offer a wide array of comprehensive due diligence and oversight capabilities, while the acquisition of Resitrader assets created the industry’s largest digital loan trading platform, allowing Optimal Blue to support more than $750 billion in transactions across its marketplace.

With the LoanDecisions acquisition marking the beginning of what seems to be a consolidation trend in the PPE space, Optimal Blue has expanded the reach of its PPE network to a client count exceeding 2,000+.

These customers are already in the process of migrating to the Optimal Blue PPE and the company will continue to expand its partnership with LoanLogics to automate correspondent loan transactions.

Essential to all of this innovation is Optimal Blue’s expanding universe of APIs, created over the last 18 months by a dedicated team of developers. The company has more than 50 customers using their APIs directly, with more than 40 vendors providing solutions that allow originators and investors to build a custom set of solutions that maximize opportunity at every critical inflection point throughout the mortgage process.

Originators are using Optimal Blue APIs for best execution product and pricing, loan and pipeline management, configuration, search results, and lock management, while investors are leveraging them for counter party oversight, NMLS verification, historical production, prospect marketing, compliance questionnaires, and FHA performance scores.

In September, Optimal Blue launched the latest in its series, a set of post-lock management APIs that enable users to easily incorporate worse case evaluations, change request submissions, and historical pricing for any loan or scenario.

Erin Wester, senior product manager at Optimal Blue, explained how the new post-lock APIs fit into the company’s initiative to fully automate everything within the Optimal Blue user interface via an API.

“We took a look at the API products we have today and some common use cases — how our clients are using them,” explained Wester. “With the post-lock APIs, users can now execute searches, create and manage loans, and submit lock requests. You can lock and register the loan through our APIs.”

The new offerings include APIs for change requests and APIs related to historical pricing results. The latter allows searching for a loan ID with a desired date and time, or even searching for a specific scenario based on a certain date and time.

Optimal Blue also recently introduced a direct data access option for its business intelligence suite, which provides users with a robust data that contains an extremely granular history of every change that has taken place within the Optimal Blue platform — including who requested a change and when, who accepted it, who denied it, etc.

The direct data access option lets users connect internal data warehouses, support custom analytics, and uniquely integrate to any in-house visualization solution. This includes data visualizations on locking analytics and change request analytics. For example, users will be able to see how many times a lock desk is having to touch a loan, as well as average cost and days per lock extension.

“The direct data access product is an automated way for the user to gain access to their organization’s unique raw data and run their own in-house, custom analytics,” Wester said. “This competitive and actionable insight is then reported to internal data warehouse solutions within the institution, opening the door for any mortgage professional to quantify and transform operational data into an advantageous asset.”

In reflecting on the previous year and the extensive progress that the company has achieved, CEO Scott Happ explained, “2018 has been a prolific year for Optimal Blue, both from an acquisition and product development perspective. Not only have we strengthened our offering with substantial new capabilities, we’ve expanded our network with scores of new client and vendor relationships.”

It has, in fact, been a noteworthy year for Optimal Blue, as the company continues to thrive in its quest to fully automate the secondary marketing function.

This piece was originally featured on HousingWire.com.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Optimal Blue and LoanLogics Join Forces to Automate Loan Acquisition for Correspondent Lenders

— New alliance includes Optimal Blue acquisition of LoanLogics’ PPE business, LoanDecisions™ —

Optimal Blue, the leading secondary marketing automation platform in the mortgage industry, and LoanLogics, a recognized leader in loan quality technology for mortgage manufacturing and loan acquisition, announced today a newly formed strategic partnership aimed at changing the digital correspondent experience. By delivering a real-time integration between LoanLogics’ LoanHD® Correspondent Lending platform and Optimal Blue’s product eligibility and pricing platform, the companies significantly advance the automation of correspondent loan transactions and create a compelling competitive advantage for clients of both firms. In conjunction with this partnership, Optimal Blue has acquired LoanLogics’ product, pricing, and eligibility (PPE) technology business, LoanDecisions™.

LoanLogics’ LoanHD platform provides automation for every step in the loan acquisition process – from initial seller application review to loan funding and servicing onboarding – and overcomes the challenges that stem from a traditionally manual and fragmented correspondent loan purchase workflow. With the capabilities of LoanHD, investors ensure the loans they are buying are high quality, compliant, and accurately priced, while sellers experience rapid turnaround for funding and enhanced availability of warehouse lines. Additionally, both parties gain value by finding and curing defects before loans are purchased.

Through real-time integration with Optimal Blue’s product eligibility and pricing platform, LoanLogics fully automates loan-level pricing and eligibility controls that are pervasive throughout loan file review and enhances a critical aspect of the correspondent workflow inside the LoanHD Correspondent Investor Module. The granular feature set of the Optimal Blue solution will drive greater configurability of the LoanHD platform, bringing new and unique capabilities to clients. Additionally, Optimal Blue will provide support for automated adjustments to loan- and bulk-level pricing based on automated due diligence results, while simultaneously delivering maximum flexibility in support of an investor’s secondary guidelines and pricing requirements.

“Working closely with the Optimal Blue team, we will expand the value each company can offer our respective clients through an integrated solution,” explained Brian Fitzpatrick, LoanLogics CEO. “Individually, we are leaders in our respective disciplines. Together, we offer powerful technology to help investors ‘automate first’ across their loan purchase, pricing, hedging, trading, and counterparty risk oversight practices.”

“We are delighted with this transaction and extend a warm welcome to LoanDecisions’ customers and staff,” said Scott Happ, Optimal Blue CEO. “We are investing deeply in our PPE technology and are committed to delivering the best-in-class solutions and innovative partner connections across our marketplace.”

LoanLogics and Optimal Blue share a long-term vision for the relationship and consider this the first step of many together. With a collective focus on providing innovative automation for the mortgage industry and compelling value for joint customers, additional strategic initiatives and collaborative integrations across the companies’ respective technology platforms are already being considered.

ABOUT LOANLOGICS
LoanLogics was founded in 2005 to improve the transparency and accuracy of the mortgage process and improve the quality of loans. Our regtech capabilities help residential mortgage lenders, servicers, insurers and investors validate compliance, improve profitability and manage risk during the manufacture, sale, and servicing of loan assets. We are proud of the recognition our loan quality management and performance analytics technology has received, the corporate recognition of our business and client growth through Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500™, corporate culture awards and executive leadership team recognition, including the leadership of our women executives. As the digital mortgage process evolves, our innovations and compliance expertise will continue to help ensure the accuracy and performance of loan assets. To learn more, visit www.loanlogics.com.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

PromonTech Announces Integration with Optimal Blue

— Borrower Wallet will now offer access to latest product eligibility and pricing information —

PromonTech, the technology unit of Promontory MortgagePath, announced today that its point-of-sale (POS) solution, Borrower Wallet™, is now integrated with Optimal Blue, a leading provider of secondary marketing automation and services in the mortgage industry.

This seamless integration provides consumers and loan officers easy access to qualified products and rates. Consumers can easily review the types of mortgages they qualify for by simply adjusting their search criteria or by having their loan officers search using the Optimal Blue product eligibility and pricing engine.

Borrower Wallet is a white-label, omni-platform POS that engages with customers using any computer or mobile device, on either a self-serve or assisted basis with a loan officer. The secure, borrower-friendly environment is designed to build confidence and make it easy for the borrower to enter information, approve automated data collection, upload/e-send documents, sign disclosures, utilize the closing center, and stay informed throughout the loan origination journey through loan closing. Borrower Wallet promotes both applicant self-service and values the role the loan officer plays as a trusted advisor. One of the unique features of Borrower Wallet is a dashboard that shows the borrower their key metrics – credit score, debt-to-income, and loan-to-value ratios – that loan decision-makers will use to approve their loans. In addition, lenders can accommodate their applicants anytime/anywhere in a secure workspace and loan officers can be a true co-pilot by enhancing the application process and loan quality ahead of underwriting.

“In this competitive mortgage market, today’s lenders are looking to differentiate their service offering and meet new consumer demands,” said Bob Brandt, vice president of Marketing and Alliances at Optimal Blue. “By integrating with Optimal Blue’s advanced API, PromonTech provides lenders with the tools they need to succeed by enabling the borrower to seamlessly access accurate pricing and product selection early in the application process.”

“Our main goal at PromonTech is always to provide the best possible service and home-buying experience for our customers – borrowers, lenders, and loan officers,” said Michael Kolbrener, chief technology officer of PromonTech. “Partnering with Optimal Blue streamlines the application process by offering our clients real-time access to the most accurate product eligibility and pricing information.”

ABOUT PROMONTORY MORTGAGEPATH
Headquartered in New York, Promontory MortgagePath was founded by Gene Ludwig and Bruce Witherell, the former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and chief operating officer of Freddie Mac, respectively. The company has two main operating divisions: PromonTech, its Denver-based technology arm, and Promontory Fulfillment Services. PromonTech is a FinTech hybrid – that is, a technology company, led by seasoned banking and mortgage executives. Its digital solutions are designed by talented technologists and mortgage experts, working collaboratively to eliminate pain points and enhance the customer experience. Promontory Fulfillment Services offers end-to-end white-label mortgage fulfillment services for banks, mortgage banks and private investors and is located in Danbury, Conn. Promontory MortgagePath is the winner of the 2018 HW Tech100™ award and the 2018 Progress in Lending Innovations award.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Optimal Blue’s API Platform Powers Broad Industry Ecosystem; A Single Source for Pricing

In 2016, Optimal Blue made a strategic decision to an open its platform to third-party systems by building a series of APIs designed to provide comprehensive access to system data and workflow functionality. Several factors drove this strategy, including the notion that while loan pricing information must be consumed by a myriad of systems, customers prefer to maintain a single implementation of product eligibility and pricing data. A second factor was the growing interest by third-party applications in embedding product eligibility, pricing data, and secondary marketing workflows. And finally, the digital mortgage movement and demand for greater information transparency was increasing the need to present consistent, real-time product and price data throughout the consumer engagement process. Now, roughly one year after Optimal Blue released its first transaction sets, the company finds itself at the center of a large and growing ecosystem of mortgage technology providers that rely on Optimal Blue APIs.

More than forty vendors have integrated with Optimal Blue’s API platform, offering a wide variety of services to the company’s customers, including solutions for customer relationship management, marketing, point-of-sale, mobile, loan origination, and lead generation. Now, for the first time, Optimal Blue clients can confidently rely on a single source of accurate pricing to power an array of systems. Hundreds of Optimal Blue clients are taking advantage of the connectivity that now exists between the product and pricing data they maintain within the Optimal Blue platform and connected vendors.

“Optimal Blue is fast becoming a utility for the industry now that our customers can simply plug their price data into nearly any technology solution,” explained Scott Happ, CEO of Optimal Blue.

Through its RESTful API platform, Optimal Blue supports a growing variety of transactions including product eligibility, complete price results, and locking. Because third-party applications are all connected using Optimal Blue’s common API framework, product eligibility and pricing is handled consistently by each application and APR calculations, payment disclosures, and mortgage insurance quotes are always correct. To ensure third-party applications comply with data and connectivity standards, Optimal Blue maintains a rigorous vendor certification process.

The success of Optimal Blue’s API initiative has been bolstered by the industry’s growing interest in bringing price transparency to consumer interactions. Today, nearly all consumers begin the mortgage loan process online and have come to expect on-demand, transparent, and consistent information. These evolving consumer expectations paired with the industry’s highly competitive environment are causing a rush by originators to adopt digital capabilities. In the process, originators must grapple with how to integrate digital mortgage technologies, deliver information to the consumer in a real-time and compliant manner, and ensure consumers have a consistent experience across channels and throughout the origination process.

Optimal Blue ‘s ecosystem of API-connected vendors provides a solution for originators wishing to bring price consistency and transparency to their entire mortgage process. Clients are using these third-party vendor connections to jumpstart their entry into the digital mortgage arena and are realizing significant operational and compliance benefits from using Optimal Blue as a single source for loan pricing.

“In creating a platform supporting third-party applications, Optimal Blue has crushed the barrier to the digital mortgage,” added Happ. “By connecting virtually every vendor in the digital mortgage space to the Optimal Blue platform, we have paved the way for originators to join the digital mortgage movement.”

Looking forward, Optimal Blue intends to extend the success of its API initiative by aggressively adding transactions supporting an even deeper integration of data and workflows. Currently in development are a set of transactions that will support advanced lock desk functionality, including re-locks, lock extensions, worst case pricing, and change requests.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Big Purple Dot Selects Optimal Blue to Streamline Processes Throughout the Loan Lifecycle

Customer Relations Management (CRM) provider, Big Purple Dot, has chosen Optimal Blue as their partner to integrate accurate product eligibility and pricing data into their platform through the use of Optimal Blue’s advanced API. This highly-anticipated integration will simplify a historically disjointed lead-to-close process, enhancing collaboration and streamlining business processes throughout the loan lifecycle.

As a client driven product and technology platform, Big Purple Dot evolves with the needs and wants of their customer base. “Our clientele has been asking for an Optimal Blue integration for several years,” explained Aldo Sarmiento, President and Chief Technology Officer at Big Purple Dot. “Optimal Blue’s API initiative has provided us the opportunity to make this happen and increases the value of our CRM immensely. We plan to introduce an assortment of dynamic and intriguing tools to the mortgage industry very soon.”

Big Purple Dot is known for their innovation and unrivaled methods that eradicate the communication barriers between the various parties involved in the lifecycle of a mortgage transaction, beginning with the borrower experience. The company has developed an application intake form that can be white-labeled per an originator’s unique UI preference, and the integration with Optimal Blue now guarantees accurate product eligibility and pricing data at this pivotal stage. The integration also allows originators and realtors to funnel leads from any source, arming them with tools to quickly distribute and efficiently close deals, in addition to subsequently managing those relationships after closing. Big Purple Dot also anticipates increased success in client re-targeting.

“Our focus is to develop technology partnerships with companies that are equally motivated to shape the future of the mortgage industry,” said Optimal Blue Strategic Alliances Manager, Chazz Huston. “Adding the CRM platform provided by Big Purple Dot into our technology ecosystem of innovators will serve Optimal Blue customers – and the mortgage industry as a whole – with true lead-to-close management, and beyond.”

ABOUT BIG PURPLE DOT
Big Purple Dot is a real estate centric, Customer Relations Management (CRM) system that provides services to both mortgage and real estate professionals. From single users to large corporate structures, Big Purple Dot focuses on speed to contact via automatic email and text message technology with an emphasis on task management, to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks. Big Purple Dot also offers lenders and realtors the ability to collaborate in real time, which promotes better communication, proper lead source tracking, and complete transparency.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR BIG PURPLE DOT
Aldo Sarmiento
President and Chief Technology Officer
(949) 223-0900
aldo@bigpurpledot.com

PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Optimal Blue Provides End-to-End Secondary Marketing Automation, Market Responds

— Significant speed, accuracy, and compliance advantages achieved throughout the lending process —

Optimal Blue has experienced incredible growth in the past year by offering a unique, end-to-end secondary marketing automation solution for originators. Optimal Blue automates the entire secondary marketing operation — from content through commitment — which has created an entirely new mortgage technology category in the marketplace.

“Secondary marketing is an enterprise-wide function that touches every aspect of the mortgage lending process, from lead generation through application, closing, and delivery,” said Bob Brandt, vice president of marketing and alliances at Optimal Blue. “What makes Optimal Blue different is that, with one end-to-end system integrated tightly with the various systems our clients rely upon, we’ve taken a more holistic approach to automating secondary marketing that covers the full gamut of the lending process.”

Through a single, unified technology and value-added platform, Optimal Blue’s Enterprise Secondary Marketing Solution incorporates every critical secondary marketing function throughout the loan process in a user-friendly, feature-rich way, including:

CONTENT
Optimal Blue’s end-to-end platform replaces manual processes with real-time, automated ingestion of loan program and pricing data. Because content is fully automated for a wide array of investors, originators can quickly activate new investor relationships and self-configure mortgage loan programs with embedded investor guidelines and company policies, or by blending the best pricing available from multiple investors.

ELIGIBILITY AND PRICING
Optimal Blue’s platform renders real-time loan quotes by instantly evaluating up-to-date investor content, and also delivers best execution results that display all eligible products ranked by price. In addition, originators can control and track pricing exceptions as well as mortgage insurance integration, which enables borrowers to obtain accurate total loan cost information.

LOCKING
Replacing manual lock desk functions with automation provides an immediate boost to an originator’s efficiency, giving them the ability to initiate rate lock requests and receive instant lock confirmations through a highly configurable, auto-accept process. Automating the change request function allows lock desk personnel to allocate more time handling exceptions, which results in a reduction of errors and ensures a pipeline position that is always current.

PIPELINE RISK
With Optimal Blue’s Enterprise Secondary Marketing Solution, pipeline positions are updated with real-time market and lock data feeds, providing secondary marketing managers with continuous visibility into risk positions. The platform includes strong error examination routines, identifies eligibility problems as loan characteristics change, and leverages native investor content to generate precise, mark-to-market reports for managers, auditors, and regulatory authorities.

HEDGING
Optimal Blue enables risk managers to perform “what-if” analyses to understand how various actions affect their risk position, as well as model the P&L impact of market changes. Positions and market values are constantly updated, so potential hedging actions may be evaluated and positions modified at any time, allowing the secondary desk to react promptly to incoming locks or market changes. Additionally, it supports note rate hedging for those who sell forward commitments through the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac cash window.

COMMITTING​​​​​​​
For originators that access the popular bulk bid market execution, automation helps streamline an otherwise tedious process. If system-to-system integration exists with the investor, committing can be initiated from within the Enterprise Secondary Marketing Solution once an execution is selected, resulting in substantial time and cost savings. Commitment automation also eliminates the need to reconcile two systems, reduces error rates and ultimately risk levels by enabling the offsetting of incoming locks more quickly.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE​​​​​​​
Secondary marketing managers are required to make quick, high-impact decisions but often lack access to the data and analytical tools necessary to operate effectively. To address this issue, Optimal Blue offers impressive business intelligence capabilities that provide instant access to broad data sets along with analytical tools that help users understand and evaluate opportunities. These systems also provide access to real-time production, performance and competitive data, as well as insight on competitive positioning and market share.

One of the most valued aspects of Optimal Blue’s Enterprise Secondary Marketing Solution extends well beyond the robust functionality. The API-first strategy of Optimal Blue led to the development of the industry’s first comprehensive RESTful API platform that supports automated product eligibility, pricing, lock desk and pipeline management integrations with the third-party technology providers the industry relies upon.

Optimal Blue clients can directly gain access to the company’s API library and develop an integration on their own, or they can choose from a library of turnkey APIs developed in partnership with a wealth of leading providers focused on lead generation, marketing, CRM, consumer-direct, point-of-sale (POS), loan origination (LOS), and more.

“Throughout the loan lifecycle, no matter what system is relied upon, the originator has the confidence that they are quoting accurate, compliant, and real-time product eligibility and pricing,” said Brandt. “With our robust API capabilities and the numerous leading mortgage technology vendors who have built to them, Optimal Blue is breaking down the integration barriers that have held back the industry.”

Optimal Blue has pioneered the full range of capabilities required to offer true, end-to-end secondary marketing automation with the emergence of its Enterprise Secondary Marketing Solution. Early adopters report significant efficiency and profitability improvements, all imperative in the compliance-critical, competitive environment in which we operate today.

This piece was originally featured on HousingWire.com.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Vantage Production Enhances Loan Origination with Compliant, Real-Time Product and Pricing

Vantage Production has chosen Optimal Blue as their partner to provide a unique digital mortgage experience. This enterprise integration allows a Vantage Production VIP user to incorporate accurate, compliant, real-time product and pricing information directly into consumer quotes and sales presentations.

“Vantage Production is very pleased to grow our relationship with Optimal Blue,” said Todd Ballenger, Executive Vice President of Vantage Production. “This deepening of our relationship enables our VIP clients to create and share Optimal Blue’s real-time pricing with prospective customers to increase sales and reduce compliance risk. It is our goal to reduce complexity for the loan originator and the companies we support in a way that empowers our clients to close more loans.”

Optimal Blue’s best-in-class digital mortgage marketplace platform consumes product and pricing content from the industry’s largest network of investors, provides intelligent selection and customization of that content as desired by originators, and distributes the personalized results to leading technology providers via RESTful APIs – wherever, and whenever it matters most.

“The partnership with Vantage Production greatly enhances the tools their VIP users offer to borrowers,” said Chazz Huston, Strategic Alliances Manager for Optimal Blue. “Borrowers and originators want a simplified, accurate and streamlined mortgage experience. This delivers.”

ABOUT VANTAGE PRODUCTION
Vantage Production, LLC is the industry’s premier provider of content, technology and services supporting the sales and marketing of mortgage products. With more than 15 years of experience, serving thousands of mortgage loan originators, Vantage Production empowers lenders to close more loans and minimize risk with solutions that are designed by mortgage experts, for mortgage experts. For more, visit www.vantageproduction.com.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR VANTAGE PRODUCTION
Torry Burdick
EVP, Marketing
(732) 526-1516
tburdick@vantageproduction.com

PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Capsilon Corporation and Optimal Blue Transform Mortgage Production Process

Optimal Blue announced today that the company has partnered with Capsilon Corporation to provide a unique digital mortgage experience with highly accurate, real-time product eligibility and pricing content.

The Capsilon digital mortgage platform leverages the power of the cloud and intelligent process automation to evolve the existing mortgage production process into a modern digital mortgage factory. By integrating Optimal Blue’s real-time product eligibility and pricing content directly into the upcoming Capsilon mortgage point-of-sale solutions, joint clients will be able to improve overall compliance, create numerous process efficiencies, and deliver an engaging origination experience.

“Capsilon is transforming the mortgage industry with intelligent process automation that increases the velocity and accuracy of every step in the loan production process,” said Sanjeev Malaney, CEO of Capsilon. “Our partnership with Optimal Blue provides the data connectivity, integrated pricing workflows, and process automation lenders require to accelerate the loan production process and improve customer satisfaction.”

Optimal Blue’s best-in-class eCommerce platform consumes product and pricing content from the industry’s largest network of investors, provides intelligent selection and customization of that content as desired by lenders, and distributes the personalized results to leading technology providers via RESTful APIs – wherever, whenever it matters most.

“Our goal is to further unite the industry with our digital marketplace and break down the traditional vendor silos that have held back industry success,” said Optimal Blue CEO Scott Happ. “Strategic integrations with digital mortgage technology leaders such as Capsilon will move the industry forward.”

ABOUT CAPSILON CORPORATION
Capsilon transforms the speed and economics of the mortgage production process. Capsilon gives mortgage originators, servicers and correspondents a disruptive advantage by making it possible to deliver mortgages at the highest velocity and at a new cost structure with the utmost integrity. Headquartered in San Francisco, Capsilon serves many of the mortgage industry’s most innovative companies, including two of the 10 largest residential mortgage lenders in the United States. For more information, visit www.capsilon.com.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR CAPSILON
Greg Marek
Chief Marketing Officer
(415) 889-2195
greg.marek@capsilon.com

PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com

Optimal Blue Announces Integration with Easy Mortgage Apps

— Two mortgage technology experts pioneer further innovation —

Optimal Blue, the premier cloud-based provider of enterprise lending services to the mortgage industry, recently announced its technology partnership with Easy Mortgage Apps. This exciting integration will provide loan officers, real estate agents, and consumers with the flexibility to utilize the Optimal Blue platform within a lender’s native application, powered by Easy Mortgage Apps. The result is the ability to easily generate eligibility and rate quotes directly on their preferred device: the smartphone.

Optimal Blue is known as the premier cloud-based provider of enterprise lending services, including their industry-leading Product eligibility and Pricing Engine (PPE), Optimal Blue Banker. This integration represents a valuable opportunity for lenders to communicate vital information with all relevant parties, including product and rate information, as well as track application statuses and share time-sensitive data between loan officers and borrowers via mobile channels.

“Easy Mortgage Apps looks forward to building this partnership with industry leader, Optimal Blue, to offer all parties involved in the mortgage process a mobile-centric and more efficient way to instantly provide loan options for consumers,” said Michael Kelleher, President and Founder of Easy Mortgage Apps. “The result is a more engaged borrower. Companies who are looking to attract the millennial mortgage applicant need to review and evaluate mobile strategies designed to enhance the consumer experience, versus lead generation. We will continue to focus on developing strategic relationships with companies like Optimal Blue, which share the vision of a technically evolved lending industry.”

“We are excited about this strategic alliance,” added Mark Coupland, Vice President of Business Development for Optimal Blue. “Easy Mortgage Apps shares our passion for creating new technology and mobile experiences that will continue to reduce friction in the lending process! The added transparency and clarity resulting from this strong integration will only further enhance the lending experience for lenders and consumers alike.”

ABOUT EASY MORTGAGE APPS
Easy Mortgage Apps (EMA), the mobile-first platform where borrowers, loan officers and realtors communicate, upload info, and track in-process loans. EMA’s white labeled product helps banks and lending institutions close the gap between today’s mortgage technology and borrowers’ expectations to use smartphones in the home buying process. The EMA native app is industry compliant and seamlessly integrates into all major loan processing systems. EMA now serves 100+ enterprise customers in 47 states.

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PRESS CONTACT FOR OPTIMAL BLUE
Robert J. Brandt
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Alliances
(469) 609-5585
bbrandt@optimalblue.com