The First American Corporation'one of North America's largest providers of business information'today announced that it has merged its Real Estate Solutions division with Sacramento, California-based CoreLogic Systems, Inc., a provider of mortgage risk assessment and fraud prevention solutions for the Real Estate industry. In 2006, First American's Real Estate Solutions generated $252 million in revenues, while CoreLogic pulled down approximately $74 million. The merger is the largest transaction in a series of acquisitions completed by First American in recent years, and is a part of a larger domestic and international mortgage risk analytics strategy.

Traditionally, risk associated with mortgage lending is managed through labor-intensive quality control and due diligence reviews. First American says the newly combined company makes this process more efficient and effective by applying advanced data and analytics at every point in the lending process. (For more information on technology's growing role in real estate and mortgage fraud detection, read my March 8, 2006 blog posting, Technology's Role in Detecting Real Estate Fraud).

Since 2004, First American has acquired analytics companies LoanPerformance, UK Valuation and Basis100 and has purchased minority stakes in The Bohan Group, ComplianceEase, BasePoint Analytics and Australia-based RP Data. Together, these companies provide data, analytics and technology solutions that First American says address the most pressing challenges in mortgage risk management, including fraud detection and prevention.