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88 TEXAS Texas Governor Signs $1.6B Hurricane Harvey Relief Bill Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently signed a $1.6 billion storm and flood resilience plan. Abbott signed the bill in Houston, which was hit by Hurricane Harvey two years ago. "anks to the work of the legislature, we are rebuilding Texas stronger and more resil- ient than ever," said Gov. Abbott, CBC DFW reports. "In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, we saw the unshakable spirit of the Lone Star State through the generosity of Texans helping their neighbors. ese important pieces of legislation are a symbol of that spirit, as well as a sign of Texas' commitment to improving the way we respond to natural disasters." e legislature also voted to appropriate $3 billion in relief for Harvey-impacted areas from the Rainy Day Fund, and Abbot notes that the storm cleanup and readiness package will mitigate damage from the next cata- strophic storm. Nationally, President Donald Trump re- cently signed a bill which provides $19.1 billion in recovery funds for disaster-affected areas. e Act directs federal agencies to release the $16 billion in disaster funds Congress approved in early 2018 following Hurricane Harvey to different states and territories—including more than $4 billion to Texas—within 60 days. According to the Texas Tribune, Texas has already received billions of dollars for Harvey recovery, but each bucket of money is designated for a specific purpose. e $4.3 billion that Congress approved for Texas last February is part of a HUD grant program designed "to help cities, counties, and states recover from presidentially declared disasters, especially in low-income areas." Building on Workflow Automation Optimal Blue, a provider of secondary marketing automation and services in the mortgage industry, recently announced the completion of a "lights-out" integration between its comprehensive hedge advisory and loan trading platforms. e announcement exemplifies Optimal Blue's ongoing commitment to provide enterprise, end-to-end automation through superior technology with functional depth. is real-time integration uses a library of proprietary APIs to automate vital functions within the secondary marketing process that to date, have been increasingly complex and resource intensive. Further, the two-way integration builds on the workflow automation that is already established within the Optimal Blue platform. "We are thrilled to deliver this next generation of automation to our clients," said John Ardy, VP of Resitrader by Optimal Blue. "More than half of our clients have already transitioned to the integrated platform and those that remain will be migrated over the next several months." Optimal Blue anticipates monthly trading volumes to exceed $5 billion upon completion of client onboarding. Optimal Blue views this integration as the foundation for several significant innovations and ongoing enhancements, like the use of proprietary machine learning algorithms to assist buyers and sellers optimize their trading strategies, as well as a fully automated "lights- out" loan execution to deliver a full roundtrip automation experience linking buyers and sellers. In addition, Optimal Blue is pursuing the expansion of axe posting for CRA, non- QM, and Jumbo transactions. "ere is considerable value in a unified technology platform," explained Scott Happ, CEO of Optimal Blue. "is integration provides further transparency into whole loan transactions and delivers the connectivity, efficiency, and liquidity necessary to thrive in today's competitive environment." Optimal Blue is a financial technology company. Its technology solutions include product eligibility and pricing, lock desk automation, risk management, loan trading, and data and analytics. More than $750 billion of transactions are processed each year across the Optimal Blue platform. A New Brand Identity Dallas-based Calyx Software, a provider of loan origination technology, revealed a new brand identity, website, and enhanced service options for customers. e companywide visual transformation was designed to embody its mission and unify behind one single brand: Calyx. "ese exciting updates more closely align with the characteristics our customers associate with the Calyx name: Easy-to-use, accessible, reliable, and customer-focused," said Bob Dougherty, EVP of Business Development at Calyx. "Our new branding is designed to convey our historical success while simultaneously fully representing our key differentiators." e new logo gives a nod to the Calyx name and symbolizes the company's commitment to its customers' growth. For nearly three decades, Calyx has been providing loan origination software for mortgage brokers through its product, Point. In recent years, Calyx has enhanced its product suite to better serve the full spectrum of mortgage lenders with Path, its cloud-based loan origination system, and Zip, its point- of-sale solution. ese products and others in development will adopt the parent company's logo with their own name and designated color palette. Beyond the visual changes, Calyx also introduced a new customer portal. "We are deeply committed to customer service and providing free training options for our customers," Dougherty said. "Our new online tool is an on-demand centralized portal where our customers can access training tools, register for webinars, download product resources, and more." FLORIDA U.S. Bank Strengthens its Correspondent Loan Operations Black Knight, Inc. recently announced that U.S. Bank, the fifth largest commercial bank in the United States, will implement Empower, Black Knight's loan origination system (LOS), to manage loans purchased via its correspondent and HFA lending channels. Empower has been significantly enhanced to include correspondent lending functionality, assess loan quality, and help mitigate risk. Today, lenders can use the omni-channel Empower loan origination system to support their retail, wholesale, assumptions, home equity, consumer-direct, and correspondent lending business—all on a single platform. "Aligning with Black Knight's Empower for our Correspondent and HFA business serves our forward-looking vision of providing innovative capabilities that advance the lending process and provide a better client experience," said Tom Wind, executive vice president, U.S. Bank. "Expanding our enterprise relationship with Black Knight allows us to enhance our digital capabilities and customer experience throughout the entire homeownership cycle." U.S. Bank will also use Black Knight's artificial intelligence solution, AIVA, for document classification, data extraction and exception management. AIVA is a cloud-