FNC

FNC, Inc. pioneered real estate collateral information technology. Since 1999, FNC has driven down costs and streamlined loan processing for the nation’s largest mortgage lenders. With its collateral management platforms and collateral-focused data and analytics, FNC provides advanced insight into the property backing a loan from origination to capital markets.

FNC, Inc. in the beginning

Former University of Mississippi professors Bill Rayburn and Dennis Tosh ran a business called Seminars, Inc., through which they advised lenders and state banking organizations on how to apply the Financial Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA). In the mid-1990s, one of the lenders at a seminar asked Bill and Dennis if they could build the kind of system they had been discussing in their seminars.

Rayburn and Tosh collaborated with fellow professors Bob Dorsey and John D. Johnson and Ph.D. student Duncan Chen, and began to work on the software, a process that took nearly three years. The University incubated the company, and Mississippi investors helped put the young company on solid footing. The company’s first client was Charter One Financial in Cleveland, Ohio who purchased FNC software in 1999.

When FNC first began it was using complex nonlinear modeling systems called neural networks to analyze financial data. The original name was Financial Neural Computing. The focus of the company changed and the name was changed to FNC.

How the company works

Two numbers secure a loan: a credit score on the borrower and a collateral score on the property. FNC builds software that streamlines and automates the parts of the mortgage process that deal with collateral assessment. The software automates appraisal ordering, review, and receipt. It does the same for title, inspection, and other mortgage settlement services fulfillment.

Improving these processes benefits customers, who see reduced costs, increased productivity and faster, more informed decision-making as a result of using FNC’s systems.

For consumers, the technology speeds the loan origination process by allowing lenders to deliver better service.

What exactly is collateral?

Collateral is generally defined as an asset used to secure a debt obligation. In the case of a residential real estate mortgage, it’s a house or type of residence used to support a loan that can be subject to seizure if the loan defaults.

FNC's products

1. CMS® stands for Collateral Management System®. The CMS is FNC’s flagship product that streamlines, secures, and automates the collateral side of mortgage lending for the nation’s largest lenders. Recently, FNC introduced a similar product, entitled Collateral Headquarters™, developed to meet the needs and concerns of regional and local lenders.
2. Collateral DNA™ is a branch of FNC that develops collateral-focused data and analytic products that give lenders accurate collateral information and crucial insight throughout the life of the loan. Armed with this information, lenders are empowered to make informed business decisions at critical junctures in the primary and secondary mortgage cycles. Collateral DNA products also help lenders to ensure regulatory compliance, mitigate fraud, reduce risks, and forecast the best possible decisions for mortgage professionals.
3. AppraisalPort® is an online solution that effectively simplifies communication between real estate appraisers and the nation’s largest mortgage lenders. Its unique features allow appraisers to receive orders from FNC-supported lenders, exchange messages with the lenders concerning specific orders, and return completed appraisals—all in a secure, closed environment. FNC also offers similar services to other industry-related professionals through online portals, including TitlePort®, InspectionPort® and GAARPort®.

FNC's Clients

FNC serves the nation’s largest mortgage lenders, including Countrywide (LandSafe), Wachovia (Wachovia Settlement Services), WaMu, Bear Stearns, SunTrust, First Horizon, First Tennessee, Union Bank of California, JVI, Quicken Loans, and TitleSource as well as several other large lenders who cannot be named due to contractual obligations of FNC.

FNC's Locations

The FNC headquarters is located in Oxford, Mississippi. FNC also has offices in Dallas, Texas, and Costa Mesa, California. FNC has onsite technical staff at client locations and telecommuters working from home offices nationwide. In all, FNC employs about 300 people.

FNC's Experts

Bill Rayburn, PhD

Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Board, FNC Co-Founder

Bill Rayburn has served as FNC’s CEO since the company began. A finance expert and visionary, Bill intimately understands how collateral underpins the mortgage industry and has a special talent for imparting that knowledge to others. Bill often speaks or sits on panels at major industry conferences and led a consulting firm specializing in seminars for bank regulatory agencies, financial institutions, and appraisal firms before founding FNC.

At FNC, he is responsible for steering the company’s mission and vision through the Age of Collateral.

A former business professor at the University of Mississippi, Bill earned his Ph.D. in business finance, Chartered Financial Analyst designation, and Appraisal Institute MAI and SRA designations.

Along with FNC co-founder Dennis Tosh, Bill quite literally wrote the book on collateral – actually, a few of them – including Sheshunoff’s Bankers Guide to Real Estate Appraisal Compliance and Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice: Applying the Standards.

Audiences

Valuation, Banking, Finance, Financial, Real Estate, General Business (CEOs, Senior Executives), Technology

Topics

New York Attorney General/OFHEO Agreement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; New Opportunities for Appraisers, Tips & Tools; Appraisers as Strategic Consultants; The Future of the Appraisal Profession; Build Employee Loyalty, Customer Satisfaction, Investor Trust; Economic Cycles in Mortgage Lending; Mortgage as an Asset; Guidance in the Era of Collateral (more than ever lenders are focused on the asset supporting the loan); What’s So Important About Collateral?; What Do You Need to Know About Collateral?; Subprime Defaults and ARM Re-sets; Housing Boom/Housing Bust and How to Stay Profitable; Risks in Today’s Real Estate Environment; A New Company from the Ground Up; Entrepreneurship; Building a Tech Business; Southern Companies and Wages; Business Incubation at State Colleges and Universities

Dennis Tosh, PhD

Chief Adminstrative Officer, FNC Co-Founder

As chief administrative officer, Dennis Tosh manages accounting, human resources programs, investor relations, and charitable giving.

Dennis co-founded FNC while still a professor at The University of Mississippi’s School of Business, where he also co-founded a consulting firm and co-authored a series of real estate industry books and articles, including the Bankers Guide to Real Estate Appraisal Compliance and Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, both considered industry standards.

A licensed appraiser, Dennis served as a trustee of the Appraisal Foundation from 1987 to 1992. He earned his doctorate in real estate from Georgia State University.

Audiences

Appraisal, Valuation, Real Estate, General Business

Topics

USPAP Changes and You; Appraisal Best Practices; Corporate Responsibility: Charitable Giving; All Things USPAP; The Future of Appraising; Cultivating Investor Relationships

Robert Dorsey, PhD

Executive Vice President of Data and Analytics, FNC Co-Founder

Bob Dorsey is responsible for the design and development of the data and analytic products at FNC. In 2007, he began to focus on enhancement of the National Collateral Database™ and building analytic products that leverage the flow of appraisal data processed by FNC.

As chief operating officer of FNC through 2006, Bob provided leadership and direction for FNC software development and implementations. He worked with clients to develop systems that have provided innovative applications to achieve improved efficiencies and compliance for the mortgage industry. Previously Bob worked as a research physicist, a research engineer, and as a corporate risk manager and spent 10 years as a professor of economics. His research focused on non-linear optimization and experimental economics; he has published extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals.

Bob earned his Ph.D. in economics from The University of Arizona as a member of the experimental economics program directed by Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith.

Audiences

Banking, Data/Analytics, Risk/Credit, Economy, General Business, Technology

Topics

Appraisal Scoring; Building Econometric Models for the Housing Market; Neural Networks; Non-Linear Estimation and Experimental Economics; New Technology in Collateral Valuation; Automated Decisioning can Transform the Mortgage Industry; National Collateral Database

Kathy Coon, SRA

Chief Appraiser, Director of Appraisal Quality Control

As the chief appraiser and director of Appraisal Quality Control at FNC, Kathy consults lenders in the detection of faulty or fraudulent appraisals.

Kathy has served the Appraisal Institute on its board of directors and executive committee as chair of education and was twice elected chair of the Residential Appraisal Board. She is a national instructor for seminars such as Residential Appraisal Review, FHA and the Appraisal Process, and the Appraisers’ Guide to the New Fannie Mae Forms. Kathy is also a member of the Mortgage Banker Association’s Fraud and Ethics subcommittee.

Kathy helped create rules included in FNC’s Generally Accepted Appraisal Rules™, which provide an automated review of appraisals for both compliance and risk issues. She also assisted the FBI in one of the largest flipping scams in the country, and has served as an expert witness for mortgage lenders in mortgage fraud cases. She has 25 years of appraisal experience.

Audiences

Appraisal, Mortgage Law Enforcement, Real Estate, Valuation, Lending

Topics

Fighting Fraud: The Appraiser’s Guide; What Lenders Look for in Appraisers; How to Handle Seller Concessions in Accurate Appraising; Ethical Appraising; Quality Assurance in Appraising; Maintaining Compliance and Mitigating Risk Related to Appraisals; Mortgage Fraud Horror Stories; Common Tactics of Appraisal Fraud: Know the Signs

Neil Olson, JD

Chief Legal Officer

The former president and CEO of the California Market Data Cooperative, Neil Olson joined the company in 2000 when FNC acquired CMDC. Neil provides legal support to FNC and its employees.

Prior to CMDC, Neil served as a senior officer at two southern California banks and practiced real estate and financial institution litigation law with a firm in Los Angeles.

Neil earned his Juris Doctor degree from Southwestern University School of Law. He is also a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, Calif.

Audiences

Legal, Banking, Mortgage Industry

Topics

New York Attorney General/OFHEO Agreement with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; Gramm-Leach-Bliley: Its Effects on Privacy in Mortgage Lending; Appraisal Data Sharing; Intellectual Property and Mortgage Lending; The History of Data Sharing; Top Data Sources; Appraiser Independence; Staying Regulatory Compliant; Collateral Risk Management; AVM Performance Testing; Navigating Mortgage Lending Regulations; Lessons from the Ameriquest Settlement

Jeff Triplette

President and Chief Operating Officer

Jeff Triplette joined FNC in January 2007 as its new president and chief operating officer after an outstanding career at global Fortune 500 company Duke Energy. He manages the day-to-day operations of FNC and establishes the processes and structure that are transitioning FNC from energetic growth company to established industry leader.

At Duke Energy, Jeff was vice president of risk management and in his last seven years grew Duke’s captive insurance company operations assets from $63 million to more than $475 million, and annual premium levels from $20 million to more than $100 million.

Jeff, a graduate of Wake Forest University, is also an NFL referee and a retired colonel with the U.S. Army Reserve and North Carolina National Guard. He earned a Bronze Star in the Persian Gulf War.

Audiences

General Business, Corporate Executive

Topics

Leading a Fortune 500 Company; Managing Growth Through Business Strategy; Corporate Discipline; Building a Successful Company by Example