MISMO Unveils e-Eligibility Exchange to Drive Adoption, Scalability of Digital Mortgage Closings
Tara Dunion tdunion@mba.org.
MISMO®, the real estate finance industry standards organization, announced availability of the MISMO e-Eligibility Exchange, powered by Snapdocs, to further accelerate industry-wide adoption of digital closings.
Developed in partnership with Snapdocs, a leading digital closing platform for the mortgage industry, the e-Eligibility Exchange provides centralized access to acceptance criteria that enables lenders and other industry participants to easily determine the right type of digital mortgage closing for each loan, including the use of electronic promissory notes (eNotes) or remote online notarization (RON).
“This Exchange is part of our strategy to offer solutions to mortgage finance’s toughest challenges, support broad adoption of industry standards and enhance the scalability of digital closings,” said MISMO President Seth Appleton. “MISMO created the Exchange to facilitate the centralized collection, consolidation, maintenance and accessibility of e-Eligibility data, and our collaboration with Snapdocs has been instrumental in our ability to make this information broadly available to the industry. A rising tide raises all ships, and the Exchange will help all market participants scale the use of digital mortgages.”
While the number of digital mortgage closings continues to rise, industry-wide adoption is still hindered by the lack of transparency into factors that determine how “electronic” closings can be. The e-Eligibility Exchange offers organizations the ability to quickly assess the different factors that impact e-Eligibility, including comprehensive information on investor and other counterparty requirements, eNotarization regulations, county eRecording acceptance, settlement agent readiness and title underwriter restrictions.
Digital closings improve the consumer experience and increase operational efficiencies by streamlining day-to-day tasks and eliminating avoidable errors for lenders and other industry participants. The e-Eligibility Exchange will help maximize the digitization of closing processes, including shifting to eNote and RON, both of which leverage MISMO industry standards, and increase these benefits for every participant involved in a mortgage loan’s life cycle.
The e-Eligibility Exchange draws on Snapdocs’ and MISMO’s respective areas of expertise, with MISMO safeguarding access to the data and working with industry participants to collect and maintain the most robust and up-to-date digital closing criteria possible, and Snapdocs providing technology that powers the e-Eligibility Exchange. To date, contributors to the Exchange include the ALTA Registry from the American Land Title Association, Deutsche Bank, First American, Freddie Mac, Freedom Mortgage, Mr. Cooper, the National Notary Association, the Property Records Industry Association and Stewart Title.
“At Snapdocs, we’re working backward from a world where the many benefits of digital closings are accessible to everyone,” said Camelia Martin, Vice President of Industry & Regulatory Affairs with Snapdocs. “Through our partnership with MISMO, and the collaborative efforts of the many contributors to the e-Eligibility Exchange, we’re empowering lenders to overcome one of the most significant barriers to the adoption and scalability of digital closings. This initiative is a perfect example of what the mortgage industry can accomplish when we come together to drive innovation.”
“MISMO e-Eligibility Exchange will help with the scalability of digital mortgage closings by addressing the challenges lenders and other stakeholders currently face when determining which loan documents can be electronically signed,” said Raj Penugonda, Product Development Director with Freddie Mac. “Freddie Mac is excited to work with MISMO in developing the e-Eligibility Exchange as part of our efforts to help the industry on its journey toward a true digital mortgage.”
“Deutsche Bank Document Custody is excited for the MISMO e-Eligibility Exchange rollout,” said Gary Vaughan, Head of Corporate Trust Americas, Trust and Agency Services with Deutsche Bank. “This initiative is a positive step that will encourage the broader adoption of eNotes and the expansion of eClosings generally across the mortgage origination and refinancing space, ultimately making the process more seamless for our clients and the industry.”
The e-Eligibility Exchange is now available, free of charge, to MISMO members, Exchange data contributors and Innovation Investment Fee payers via an online interface and APIs which can be integrated into other technology platforms. To access or for more information on how to become a data contributor, send an email to eee@MISMO.org.
About MISMO
MISMO is the standards development body for the real estate finance industry. MISMO developed a common language for exchanging information for the mortgage finance industry. Today, MISMO standards are accepted and deployed by every type of entity involved in creating mortgages, and they are required by most regulators, housing agencies and the GSEs that participate in the industry. Use of MISMO’s standards has been found to lower per loan costs, improve margins, reduce errors and speed up the loan process by reducing manual, paper-based processes while creating cost savings for the consumer. MISMO is a subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association. For more information, visit https://www.mismo.org/standards-resources/digital-mortgage-resource-center/e-eligibility.
