Industry Briefs, March 11, 2026
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Friday Harbor Rolls Out Income and Asset Sandbox
Friday Harbor, Seattle, has launched an 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 guidelines. The tools are intended to help loan officers structure deals that qualify and close earlier in the origination process.
The new tool operates within Friday Harbor’s AI pre-underwriting platform and is supported by the Loan File Companion AI assistant.
Using the sandbox, lenders can instruct Friday Harbor’s AI income agent to include or exclude specific income streams, assets and supporting documentation within a live loan file and see qualifying income recalculated immediately.
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Optimal Blue Introduces Virtual Economist
Optimal Blue, Plano, Texas, announced Virtual Economist, an on-demand forecasting tool for mortgage capital markets leaders powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“Virtual Economist was built to address a real challenge our lender clients face–the disconnect between economic insight and day-to-day execution,” said Erin Wester, chief product officer at Optimal Blue. “By uniting public economic indicators with Optimal Blue’s proprietary lock volume data and applying AI/ML-driven forecasting, teams can test assumptions and prepare immediately through conversational and visual scenario modeling.”
Virtual Economist is the centerpiece of nine platform advancements unveiled at the firm’s 2026 summit.
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MCT Debuts Next-Generation MBS Pool Optimizer
Mortgage Capital Trading, San Diego, has rolled out its new next-generation mortgage-backed security MCTlive! Pool Optimizer.
It introduces a Complete Unified Device Architecture GPU framework, and the system is capable of evaluating every possible execution path for each loan across dozens of variables to identify the most profitable pool allocations in real time.
The MCTlive! Pool Optimizer is currently available to MCT’s active and prospective hedge clients, Ginnie Mae issuers and MBS-approved lenders.
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LERETA Integrates with ICE’s Self-Service Homeowner Portal
LERETA, Pomona, Calif., has introduced an API-based integration with ICE Mortgage Technology’s Servicing Digital Homeowner Portal.
The integration uses LERETA’s data to populate a tax tracker module within Servicing Digital, which will give homeowners real-time visibility into their property tax and insurance payment information in the same spot as their loans.
The tax tracking data allows servicers to deliver a seamless branded experience and helps reduce customer service calls by making information more transparent.
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Dark Matter Develops New AI Agents Capability on Developer Platform
Dark Matter Technologies, Jacksonville, Fla., has launched a new capability on its Developer Platform that enables lenders to use AI agents securely within the regulated mortgage environment.
The capability utilizes model context protocol, an open-source standard for connecting AI applications to external systems. It enables AI agents to interact with the Empower LOS platform through a secure, managed gateway, which validates user identity, enforces permissions, limits data exposure and creates a complete audit trail for every request. Dark Matter manages the gateway infrastructure and lenders are responsible for building and deploying their own agents.
The capability also allows lenders to connect AI agents to other internal systems, such as servicing or billing platforms.
LOS customers can enable the capability now through the platform.
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Vertyx, Great Lakes Launch Joint Effort
Vertyx, Nazareth, Pa., has partnered with Great Lakes Credit Union, Eden Prairie, Minn., through its CUSO holding company, GLCU Holdings, to launch Vertyx CUSO, a credit union service organization focused on mortgage servicing.
Vertyx CUSO enables credit unions to share technology and expertise while accessing modern servicing capabilities.
Vertyx’s mortgage servicing platform centralizes portfolio data, embeds automated compliance into daily workflows and supports faster, data-driven decision-making.
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Dovenmuehle Completes 2025 SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 Audits
Dovenmuehle, Lake Zurich, Ill., announced it has completed its 2025 Service Organization Control 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 audits.
The examinations were conducted by Plante Moran. Dovenmuehle’s success confirms that its internal controls, operational processes and information security practices meet stringent standards for financial reporting integrity and the safeguarding of client data.
The SOC 1 Type 2 report examines the design and operation of Dovenmuehle’s controls over financial reporting; the SOC 2 Type 2 report looks at security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality and privacy.
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Class Valuation Announces CU Access
Class Valuation, Troy, Mich., announced its one of the first AMCs to receive access to Fannie Mae’s Collateral Underwriter.
With this type of access, lenders and AMCs will be able to work from a common set of insights, reducing misalignment during appraisal review and promoting time and efficiency.
Class Valuation plans to integrate CU insights into its overall appraisal review processes. The firm will continue to engage clients as implementation progresses.
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Land Home Financial Services to Deploy Dara by Sagent
Land Home Financial Services, Concord, Calif., will deploy Dara by Sagent, Coppell, Texas.
By implementing Dara, Land Home plans to modernize its servicing operations with unified workflows and real-time data.
Land Home will implement the entire suite of Dara products, including Dara Core, Dare Consumer, Dara Default, Dara Analytics, Dara Claims, Dara Invoice and AI Docs.
Land Home has been partnering with Sagent for the past five years.
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