SOUTHFIELD, Mich. — Mortgage Builder Software Inc., a provider of end-to-end mortgage banking software, announced that First American Flood Data Services has integrated its flood certification process into Mortgage Builder's loan origination system, providing an instant response for a flood determination request.

Users of Mortgage Builder software now have the ability to order a flood determination from within the system. The flood certificate is returned automatically with fields populated into the loan application. When requesting a flood certification in Mortgage Builder, a data file is transmitted to First American via Web services. The data returned includes the census tract identifier, MSA identifier, county code and additional flood mapping fields indicating to the user if there is a flood insurance requirement. The automatic importation of flood data saves time and reduces errors as well as secondary market risks, said the company.

Guided by federal regulations, First American's flood zone determinations are based upon current FEMA flood insurance rate maps. The process uses a multilevel database composed of two complementary processes. The first component utilizes a vast property database of nearly two decades worth of manually completed determinations. The second process uses state-of-the-art geographic information systems technology, which gives a current, digitized data view of a geographic location. This technology provides a high level of accuracy for every flood determination.