Welcome to Ask the eClosing Team, a new series where DocMagic’s eClosing pros tackle real questions that we’re hearing from lenders. Today’s response is supplied by eClosing Team member Leah Sommerville, Senior Account Executive at DocMagic.

What steps should Ienders take to get set up for eClosing?

Lenders embarking on a digital lending journey have several steps they should take to successfully prepare for eClosing.

Regardless of which eClosing opportunities lenders pursue — from hybrid eClosings to a completely digital eClosing — here are the components that are key to a successful eClosing initiative: 

1. Identify an internal eClosing project leader.

Lenders must select an internal stakeholder to lead the transition to eClosing. “Someone needs to champion the eClosing initiative and take ownership of it,” Sommerville said.

Lenders occasionally (and mistakenly) assign someone from their IT team as the project leader, under the assumption that implementing eClosing is primarily a tech project. “eClosing is an operational improvement to increase the entire organization's closing efficiency,” Sommerville said. “The most successful project leader is often an operational manager familiar with the organization’s existing workflow. This insight is important as teams transition to a digital closing workflow.”

Ask the eClosing Team: What do lenders need to get set up for eNotes?

The project leader does not have to be a C-suite level executive, but they should still have the support of and be in constant communication with the executive sponsor. The project leader should also be in a position of leadership, as they will be responsible for setting the organization’s rollout deadlines and adoption milestones and holding the all-important kickoff meeting to ensure the team understands the goals.

Sommerville has seen some organizations fail to successfully scale eClosing adoption when the project leader attempts to implement the eClosing process alone, believing they should have a few solo successes first before convincing others to get on board. “This isn’t a project for one person. The entire team must get behind eClosings as the default option,” she said.

2. Confirm executive commitment for your eClosing initiative.

An eClosing strategy may not always require executive approval to implement, but it always requires executive commitment to succeed. An executive sponsor at the C-suite level must show that they strongly support eClosing — not just with words, but actions.

One large lender that Sommerville worked with had hundreds of branches, all of which were treated as independent entities. While the lender’s executive sponsor supported eClosing, this CEO allowed each branch to decide how and when to implement eClosings. The attitude was, “eClosing is a great option, but it’s up to you.”

“Unfortunately, results were dismal. LO’s didn’t take the initiative,” Sommerville said. “The CEO knew eClosing provides benefits to the company and borrowers, but because she didn’t say, ‘This is how we should be doing it,’ the people on the ground didn’t feel the need to improve how they conducted closings.”

3. Determine your eClosing roadmap.

One of the most important steps for lenders is creating a detailed eClosing roadmap, which should lay out which versions of eClosing they will introduce; planned eClosing options for the future; and realistic rollout deadlines and adoption goals.

Sommerville warns strongly against implementing eClosing without a strategic roadmap. “It’s like being a boat at sea with no rudder. You can’t reach your end goal if you don’t know how you’re going to get there,” she said.

It’s easiest to implement an eClosing workflow with basic eSign Hybrids (which DocMagic refers to as a Hybrid 1); this type of hybrid allows the borrower to preview all documents in advance of the closing and eSign almost 90% of the closing package, papering out only the traditional promissory note and any documents which require notarization. Hybrid 1 eClosings can be implemented in as little as 24 hours and have no barriers to 100% full-scale adoption.

eSign Hybrids can be introduced as a first step for lenders as they prepare to also provide eNotes and/or eNotarization. “A staged rollout allows lenders to crawl, walk and then run for the most successful long-term adoption of this eClosing,” Sommerville said.

While considering their roadmap lenders should set specific target goals, such as the number (and versions) of eClosings they plan to provide monthly and then quarterly compared to their overall loan volume, for example.

Unfortunately, lenders who don’t conduct enough eClosings early during the adoption process are likely to lose momentum. “The largest factor that causes these initiatives to fall off track is when lenders don’t gain enough experience initially,” Sommerville said.

4. Select the right eClosing technology partner.

When selecting an eClosing technology partner, lenders should seek one that offers an end-to-end solution that supports all eClosing workflows. Even if lenders start with a basic eSign Hybrid, they should assume that at some point they may want to also offer eNotes or eNotarization options.

“Lenders want to select a technology partner capable of supporting their immediate and future eClosing strategies, so they have room for growth,” Sommerville said. “Additionally, a robust eClosing platform should include proprietary technology for a seamless experience. By selecting an end-to-end technology platform, lenders are empowered for all eClosing processes and assistance by a single source in the future.”

The right technology provider should also be compatible with the lender’s existing technology partners, such as their loan origination system (LOS), point of sale (POS) or document storage systems. DocMagic, for example, has an open application programming interface (API), meaning that existing integrations are already abundant.

Additionally, eClosing providers should ensure internal users are trained and knowledgeable. Lenders are encouraged to test their new eClosing processes. “We want lenders to be as familiar as possible with the eClosing process before they provide this experience to borrowers,” Sommerville said, noting that DocMagic clients can run as many tests and samples as they need, at no additional charge.

5. Confirm that your external business partners can support eClosing.

Lenders need to confirm if their settlement agents are familiar with eSigning and/or eClosing. Often, lenders are pleasantly surprised to learn that their settlement partners already include some form of eSigning or even eNotarization in their business processes.

While many lenders assume that they’re responsible for training settlement agents themselves, a technology vendor like DocMagic actually handles the agent training and onboarding on the lender’s behalf.

Additionally, most of the settlement agents that Sommerville works with leverage Simplifile for eRecording services. Fortunately, DocMagic has an integration with Simplifile, so settlement agents who use their service don’t even have to leave the Simplifile platform.

Finally, if lenders plan to facilitate eNotes, they must communicate their plans to sell these eNotes to warehouse partners and investors, as well as activate their MERS eRegistry membership as required for eNote registration.

The eClosing Team can be reached at eClosingTeam@docmagic.com.

Related Content:

• DocMagic client Truliant transfers FHLBank Atlanta's first eNote (4/15/2021)
• Ask the eClosing Team: What do lenders need to get set up for eNotes? (3/4/2021)
• Magazine survey shows overwhelming demand for eClosings (2/24/2021)

On April 27, 2021, the CFPB formally announced the delay of the mandatory compliance date of the General Qualified Mortgage (QM) Final Rule from July 1, 2021 to Oct. 1, 2022. The General QM Final Rule removes the requirement that a consumer’s debt-to-income (DTI) ratio cannot exceed 43% and creates a “price-based limit.” Until the mandatory compliance effective date, the CFPB is allowing creditors to follow either the General QM loan definition in effect before March 1, 2021 or the revised Final Rule. The temporary GSE QM loan definition, or “GSE Patch,” which allows loans for sale to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (the "GSEs") with a DTI exceeding 43% is also available to creditors until the mandatory compliance date or until the GSEs exit federal conservatorship.

In January 2021, the GSEs entered into an agreement with the Department of Treasury that made changes to the Amended and Restated Preferred Stock Purchase Agreement (the “PSPA”). Under the PSPA, the GSEs will no longer be able to purchase loans that do not meet the CFPB’s revised General QM loan definition set forth in 12 CFR 1026.43(e)(2).

On April 8, 2021, Fannie Mae issued Lender Letter 2021-09 and Freddie Mac issued Bulletin 2021-13 to announce that under the PSPA, loans originated under the prior General QM definition (Appendix Q) will no longer be eligible for purchase. Loans originated under the GSE Patch will only be eligible for purchase if the requirements of the revised General QM loan definition are also met. The changes are effective for loans with an application date of July 1, 2021 or later, and for all loans with settlement dates after Aug. 31, 2021. Therefore, even if the CFPB extends the mandatory compliance date for the General QM Final Rule beyond July 1, 2021, most lenders will need to originate loans that meet the new definition. The GSEs will be releasing additional notices announcing guideline and policy changes.

The amendments exclude government loans that otherwise meet QM requirements, including Section 184 Native American Mortgages and Section 502 GRH Mortgages, which will continue to be eligible for purchase under an FHFA exception.

DocMagic has released a new QM audit that compares the Annual Percentage Rate (APR) to the applicable Average Prime Offer Rate (APOR) and determines if the APR exceeds the price-based limitation threshold. The audit will run concurrently with the previous QM audits until Sept. 1, 2021.

Effective Sept. 1, 2021, DocMagic will be removing options related to the previous General QM definition, including QM audits for DTI and the field for QM DTI Ratio. Additionally, DocMagic will be removing the Temporary Agency/GSE option for QM Type and the GSE Type. Any data received for using the Temporary Agency/GSE options will be routed to the General QM Type.    

Related Content:

• CFPB rescinds 7 pandemic-related policy statements (4/7/2021)
• The new URLA: The No. 1 thing you need to do to ensure you're ready (2/7/2021)
• CFPB issues statement on financial institutions serving LEP customers (2/3/2021)

Last week the new Secretary of State of California — a state which has been one of the most resistant to remote online notarization (RON) — held a lively and heavily attended Zoom briefing to discuss whether California should allow the technology.

Dr. Shirley N. Weber, who was sworn into office in February, invited experts to discuss the pros and cons of RON. She stressed that she has not yet taken a position on RON but sought to learn as much as possible, noting that she’ll likely be asked to weigh in on any legislation.

“We in California are concerned about [RON] because we surely want to make notarization convenient, we want to make it accessible to so many individuals and utilize the tools that are available now to accomplish that, but we also want to do it by protecting the interest of Californians against fraud,” Weber said.

Here are the 5 main hurdles to eClosing implementation — and how to overcome them

Interest in the April 28 informational briefing was so high that attendance instantly reached the maximum capacity of 500 people and several people were initially locked out of the Zoom as a result. Weber marveled that by the end of the almost two-hour-long meeting there were still 488 people watching. “Clearly this is an item of concern,” she said.

More states have been enacting permanent RON laws (distinct from the emergency orders that were passed in response to the pandemic). Since Wyoming became the first state this year to enact RON, another three states — Kansas, New Mexico and West Virginia — have jumped on board, which means 32 states now have permanent RON laws. Three states also allow remote ink-signed notarization (RIN).

California currently has a bill, AB 1093, that would allow RON.

However, its historical opposition to RON is well known; during the pandemic, California was one of just two states that didn’t even pass an emergency order to temporarily permit remote notarization. When bipartisan federal legislation was proposed last year to allow RON nationwide, then-Calif. Attorney General Xavier Becerra urged Congress to abandon the effort, calling it “a solution in search of a problem.” Such opposition from a large and powerful state likely helped doom the bill’s chances.

For the briefing, Weber invited three experts to make or break the case for RON in California:

Lori Hamm, Notary Program Specialist at the Montana Secretary of State’s office

Hamm oversees the RON program in Montana, which enacted its law in 2019. Some of her key points:

• RON is used for a lot more than just mortgages. In Montana, most of the remote notaries are lawyers and paralegals who practice elder and estate law. “They realize the benefits of having the audiovisual recordings to substantiate the capacity and willingness of the principals, and of course the benefits of social distancing when dealing with vulnerable populations,” she said.
• Many of the temporary emergency RON orders are insufficient. They’re “stretching the concept of personal appearance and contemporaneous completion of the notarial certificate to what I think is a dangerous degree,” Hamm said. “And I suspect that there will be a number of notary authorities who may get rich as expert trial witnesses as some of these laws get challenged down the road.”

Matt Miller, President and Founder of The California League of Independent Notaries

Miller acknowledged that there is an appetite for RON, but said he still had several concerns. Some of his key points:

• Data privacy is a major concern. At a time when there are still too many data breaches, Miller said it’s worrisome that an online notarial transaction collects even more personal data than a traditional notarial transaction, such as identity credentials, facial features, a person’s voice and the contents of personal legal documents.
• Liability protections for online notaries aren’t strong enough. RON platform providers handle the identity validation that, in a traditional notarial transaction, would normally be done by the notary. However, if the provider “fails to vet identity properly and then fraud occurs, these companies could point to the notary and effectively shield themselves from all liability,” Miller said. “This is undesirable for practitioners and potentially harmful to the public.”

Craig Page, Executive Vice President and Counsel at the California Land Title Association (CLTA)

Page said CLTA employs thousands of notaries and notarizes millions of documents in the state. Some of his key points:

• CLTA had previously opposed RON — but not anymore. Three years ago, CLTA came out against a RON bill. Now they firmly support the practice. So what changed? Page said over the last few years other states have strengthened their laws to make them more secure; MISMO has been setting stringent standards; California passed laws to further protect consumer privacy; and RON platform providers, facing increased competition, have improved their systems.
• California’s anti-RON stance hurts it on the secondary market. At the federal level, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both accept RON closings. “Because we don’t have a RON program in California, this unfortunately puts California-generated loans at a disadvantage when it comes to marketability in the secondary market to investors,” Page said.

One facet of notarization unique to California is that notaries are required to keep the signer’s thumbprint in their notary journal. Miller noted that this requirement helps deter fraud and has been used by the state’s criminal justice system to solve crimes involving “fraud, abuse, and even murder.”

Page responded that while the thumbprint requirement has been useful, RON’s audiovisual requirement — capturing a potential felon’s image, voice, mannerisms and identity credentials — would serve as a stronger deterrent to crime.

Miller and Page also clashed over the fact RON is already affecting mortgages in the state. Miller noted that currently, a California resident can use an online notary in another state, possibly one with lower standards. He called for legislation to disallow that practice.

Page, however, said that according to the U.S. Constitution’s interstate commerce clause, documents legally notarized by RON notaries in other states must be accepted in California. Thus, the state’s current antipathy to RON merely ensures that California’s mortgage closing business goes to other states’ remote notaries.

“Numerous large county recorders in California are accepting RON-notarized documents from out of state,” he said. “Madam Secretary, I would argue that this fact alone behooves California to pass the RON programs as quickly as possible.”

The bulk of the briefing’s attendees were notaries. Their questions included how much it costs to become a remote online notary; how the e-signing and identity verification works; and technical questions about software and video storage.

In response to a query about how long it takes to become a remote notary, Hamm said that during the first six months of Montana’s law, only about a half-dozen notaries got qualified to conduct RONs. Then the pandemic hit.

“We went from six to 298 in about six weeks,” she said. “Things like pandemics certainly change the landscape.”

Before ending the briefing, Weber promised that her office would continue to monitor RON efforts in the state. She added, “Change is never easy, it’s always difficult, but … oftentimes when change happens people are surprised that it took so long for them to realize that change can be good.”

Related Content:

• RON update: First new remote online notarization law of 2021 passes (2/12/2021)
• RON update: Remote online notarization sees forward momentum — and a setback (6/26/2020)
• RON vs. RIN (remote ink-signed notarization): What's the difference? (6/10/2020)

Leah Sommerville, DocMagic’s senior account executive, has been named one of 10 winners of the NextGen Leader Award by PROGRESS in Lending Association. This award is specifically for people who have been in the industry for 10 years or less.

“We need new leaders that are not afraid to step forward and blaze a new trail. We need creativity. We need bold new ideas,” PROGRESS in Lending stated in announcing the award.

Sommerville is a member of DocMagic’s eClosing Team, where she has helped numerous lenders form their digital mortgage strategy and implement eClosings. She's no stranger to accolades — last year Sommerville was named one of National Mortgage Professional magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 Most Influential Mortgage Professionals. She's also a respected thought leader in the lending space.

“Being named to this new list of industry professionals who are all striving to make a difference is truly an honor,” she said. “At the end of the day, working for an industry-leading company like DocMagic that is constantly innovating makes it easy to get excited and passionate about introducing digital mortgage solutions to lenders.”

In 2020, DocMagic achieved 128% year-over-year growth and executed the most eClosings in company history, tallying a 724% increase in transactions via its Total eClose platform.

Sommerville has forged numerous partnerships between lenders, settlement agents, attorneys, notaries, investors, warehouse lenders and others in order to further digital mortgage initiatives that benefit the entire supply chain. She has also worked closely with leading loan origination system (LOS) vendors, settlement providers and third-party systems to facilitate automation of the entire eClose process. Her efforts have helped execute thousands of eClosings and increased eClosing adoption among relevant organizations by over 1,000%.

Related Content:

• DocMagic named to HousingWire's Tech100 list for 8th straight year (3/11/2021)
• Brian D. Pannell honored with HousingWire's 2020 Tech Trendsetters Award (12/4/2020)
• DocMagic's Lori Johnson honored with HousingWire's 2020 Insiders Award (9/3/2020)

The number of title agents who said they conducted eClosings in 2020 more than doubled from the year before, according to a new survey.

The 11^th annual Voice of the Title Agent report, produced by The Title Report, found that 2020 was a profitable year for title agents, in spite of the pandemic. Nine out of 10 said their business improved in 2020, up from 80% who reported that the previous year.

During the pandemic, technology — in particular eClosings — became more essential for title agents to perform their job duties. The percentage who said they are already conducting eClosings went up by more than 114% from last year, while those who said they completed more eClosings in 2020 than in the year prior rose 150%.

One survey respondent said the pandemic will result in a permanent change to the title industry: “There will be a ‘real estate pre-COVID’ and a ‘real estate post-COVID.’ I doubt that the old way of doing business with bricks and mortar will come back. ... Remote online closings are becoming much more common.”

About 20% of respondents said they don’t expect to use eClosings at all — down from 25% who said the same last year. Here’s a sample of their reasons as to why eClosings are a no-go for them:

• Potential fraud: “I do not intend to do eClosings. I feel that they just open the door to liability and claims of fraud.”
• Technology: “I’m set up, but the software is so awful that I stopped.”
• Resistance to change: “I like ink, and I will not lie, and neither does ink! Sorry, been at this for 39 years. I will quit before I do eSigning, especially loan docs, and I will not remote online notary.”

Meanwhile, other agents said that while they’re ready for eClosing, their partners are not. “We are ready and capable, but lenders are not,” one agent said. Another said, “We just need lenders to get there.”

Interestingly, many lenders looking to start the eClosing process have found that a common roadblock is getting their business partners — including title agents — on board.

Leah Sommerville, a senior account executive at DocMagic, said that as she helps lenders get onboarded with eClosings, she’s finding that more and more settlement agents are already familiar with the eSigning process. Some are even including eSigning or eNotarization in their internal processes.

“It’s such a relief for lenders when settlement agents are already comfortable with the eSigning process,” she said. “As lenders consider their successful eClosing adoption, this eliminates a large concern for them.”

DocMagic’s eClosing solution includes a settlement agent portal where agents can conduct a variety of functions as part of the closing event, including adding additional participants (e.g. sellers and witnesses); adding and e-enabling title documents; reviewing closing documents to ensure all acknowledgeable annotations are present prior to eClosing; and selecting the preferred eNotary provider and eNotarization method (“in person” or “remote online”).

Additionally, lenders often think they have to train and onboard settlement agents themselves, but Sommerville notes that for clients, DocMagic will handle the settlement agent onboarding process on lenders’ behalf.

Despite some pockets of resistance, the survey and responses show that most title agents realize that eClosings are where the mortgage industry is heading.

“Digital closings represent a small percentage of our business today,” one said. “However, I expect them to trend up and that they’ll become a consumer expectation over time, not unlike what we’ve seen in other lines of insurance.”

Related Content:

• DocMagic teams up with Simplifile to facilitate eClosing adoption (7/27/2020)
• 3 reasons why underwriters haven't jumped on the RON bandwagon (6/24/2020)
• New support for power of attorney (POA) transactions amid COVID-19 (5/7/2020)

North Carolina-based Truliant Federal Credit Union has become the first lender to transfer an eNote, or electronic promissory note, to FHLBank Atlanta. The move marks one of the first successful eNote transfers within the 11-member Federal Home Loan Bank system.

“This is the culmination of years of work by the state of North Carolina, FHLBank Atlanta and a dedicated team at Truliant,” said Todd Hall, Truliant’s president and CEO. “This final digital step makes the whole homebuying experience quicker, more accurate and secure.”

The transfer was conducted as part of FHLBank Atlanta’s eNote pilot program, meant to test the bank’s infrastructure and ensure that more lenders can report eNotes as collateral. Truliant, which serves more than 270,000 members at over 30 locations across the Carolinas and Virginia, was invited to participate in the pilot.

Learn why eNotes are a game changer for the mortgage industry

“Interest in the ability to pledge eNotes as collateral continues to grow among our members and this initial transfer demonstrates that we now have the ability to meet this growing demand,” said Rob Kovach, FHLBank Atlanta’s Chief Credit Officer.

Truliant completed the eNote transfer on March 26 using the MERS eDelivery system and DocMagic’s eVault — almost exactly a year after they completed their first end-to-end eClosing on March 27, 2020, via DocMagic’s 100% paperless Total eClose solution.

To conduct the transfer Truliant had to meet a series of standards set by the FHLBank system relating to eSignatures, eNote documentation, eRegistry requirements, eVaults and more. For example, the standards covered what processes Truliant has in place if the eNote should need to be modified or papered out, or if a loan goes into foreclosure, said Beth Eller, Truliant’s vice president of mortgage services.

“We had eNotes in our portfolio so we had the ability to collateralize a note with them,” Eller said. “FHLBank Atlanta is a great institution. We were just really honored to be asked to participate.”

eNote usage is skyrocketing. In 2020, there were 462,671 eNotes registered on the MERS eRegistry, which shattered the 2019 record of 127,178 eNotes. 

The individual members of the FHLBanks, the majority of which selected DocMagic’s eVault technology, are in disparate stages of accepting eNotes as collateral. FHLB Des Moines is the only other member to have completed an eNote transfer, while Chicago and Dallas announced in mid-2020 that they would begin accepting eNotes. Other members are still in various planning stages.

In 2020, Truliant became the first credit union and second financial institution based in North Carolina to offer full eClosings. 

“DocMagic was critical to our success and in being able to do eClosings,” Eller said. “Without DocMagic’s help, we would have really struggled to get eNote adoption as quickly and efficiently as we did. It’s been a real plus to have a partner that is engaged in your success and that really has a vested interest in making sure that things go well.” 

Related Content:

• Ask the eClosing Team: What do lenders need to get set up for eNotes? (3/4/2021)
• Relive some key mortgage industry milestones in 2020 (12/29/2020)
• Ginnie Mae, 3 FHLBanks start accepting eNotes (8/5/2020)

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced that it is rescinding seven policy statements that were issued last year to assist financial institutions during the height of the pandemic. Issued between March 26 and June 3, 2020, the policy statements provided some flexibility in complying with certain regulatory filings and consumer finance laws.

The rescission date for the policy statements was April 1, 2021. The CFPB stated in each policy rescission that it would not be providing a notice and comment period as it would with rulemaking. The statements are intended to provide information regarding the CFPB’s plans to exercise its supervisory and enforcement discretion, which does not impose any change to existing legal requirements.

The rescinded policy statements include:

• March 26, 2020: Statement on Bureau Supervisory and Enforcement Response to COVID-19 Pandemic. The statement provided that the CFPB would look at good-faith efforts to assist consumers while taking into consideration staffing and related resource challenges related to the pandemic.
• March 26, 2020: Statement on Supervisory and Enforcement Practices Regarding Quarterly Reporting Under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act. The statement provided that until further notice, the CFPB would not bring an action for failure to report HMDA data quarterly as required. The rescission states that financial institutions must resume quarterly HMDA data submissions starting with 2021 first quarter data.
• March 26, 2020: Statement on Supervisory and Enforcement Practices Regarding CFPB Information Collections for Credit Card and Prepaid Account Issuers. The rescission statement provides guidance on how supervised entities should follow information collections requirements for credit card and prepaid accounts.
• April 1, 2020: Statement on Supervisory and Enforcement Practices Regarding the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Regulation V in Light of the CARES Act. The rescission statement advises the CFPB will resume full supervisory and enforcement activity, but still encourages financial institutions to provide and report payment relief actions.
• April 27, 2020: Statement on Supervisory and Enforcement Practices Regarding Certain Filing Requirements Under the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (ILSA) and Regulation J. The rescission ends flexibility provided to land developers and other entities subject to ILSA related to filing annual reports and financial statements.
• May 13, 2020: Statement on Supervisory and Enforcement Practices Regarding Regulation Z Billing Error Resolution Timeframes in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The rescission ends flexibility of enforcement for the handling of consumer dispute requests by financial services entities.
• June 3, 2020: Statement on Supervisory Enforcement Practices Regarding Electronic Credit Card Disclosures in Light of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The statement provided that the CFPB would not cite a violation or bring an enforcement action if an issuer did not obtain oral consent for certain electronic disclosures. As financial institutions have now had time to improve operations and servicing procedures, the CFPB will no longer provide flexibility in enforcement of TILA and Regulation Z violations.

Additionally, the CFPB released Bulletin 2021-01 on March 31, 2021, which rescinds and replaces Bulletin 2018-01, issued on Sept. 25, 2018. The new Bulletin announced that the CFPB will no longer issue formal written Supervisory Recommendations. Instead, examiners will issue Matters Requiring Attention (MRAs) to express expectations to supervised entities, with or without a related finding of a violation. The MRAs should include specific goals and corrective actions to be taken, along with a specific timeline for actions.

Related Content:

• CFPB issues statement on financial institutions serving LEP customers (2/3/2021)
• CFPB's 5-year TRID assessment produces mixed results (10/15/2020)
• FHFA, other agencies announce extension of COVID-related policies (9/16/2020)

The first step of a closing is for a massive amount of information — about the borrower, the property and the type of loan — to be entered into the lender’s loan origination system (LOS). Data validation is the process by which that information is audited and verified.

Good data validation is crucial. For a variety of reasons (such as how the data is received, the size of the required data set and the complexity of the information), information may be incomplete, incorrect or improperly formatted — potentially causing major disruptions for lenders later on in the process. Lenders need a data validation system that confirms the loan data they’re collecting is complete, accurate and compliant at the state, federal and investor level.

“It’s a health integrity check of all of the loan’s data, to ensure that you have a complete and accurate data set prior to a document generation event,” said Chris Lewis, DocMagic’s Director of Enterprise Solutions.

An effective data validation system should be able to analyze this data as it’s being submitted in order to catch errors and inconsistencies, such as if the zip code doesn’t match the state or if information such as the interest rate is missing, to name a few.

The best data validation systems should have a multilayered error-detection program, such as an audit engine that’s constantly analyzing the loan data. In addition to that, the system should generate a loan report that highlights any inaccurate, missing or questionable information. At the touch of a button, lenders should be able to pull up a laundry list of any issues that need to be addressed.

Of course, even if they lack an audit engine or loan report, lenders could still start plugging data into their LOS and generate a document package — but it's much more likely this would result in errors they won’t spot until much later.

“Maybe it’ll have an unpopulated field or generate documents in a non-compliant way,” Lewis said. “The old way is where lenders would generate documents and then look at them and realize, ‘I still need to add this or that,’ instead of being able to ensure everything is correct beforehand. Lenders could generate documents that way, but it would take a lot longer and be a lot more error prone.”

As part of data validation for both its document generation and 100% paperless Total eClose solutions, DocMagic offers an audit engine and Loan Detail Report that guarantees lenders can generate compliant document packages. The Loan Detail Report can be provided in both XML and browser-ready HTML formats.

On top of that, DocMagic also offers lenders the ability to configure custom audits according to their needs (for example, to flag things such as if a property in a specific zip code is over a certain price threshold). Additionally, after over 30+ years of operation and millions of closings, DocMagic has developed thousands of prebuilt audits that instantly spot potentially questionable data.

“Lenders are doing all the legwork to do their best to get complete and accurate data into the documents they generate, but using an automated data audit and validation engine can greatly reduce errors and double as a quick way to know what data you have left to collect,” Lewis said. “DocMagic’s platform gives lenders the benefit of all these other loans that have been closed in a compliant way on our platform, and of us providing rulesets that ensure they’re collecting quality data. That’s the endgame: quality data that’s complete.”

Related Content:

• The new URLA: The No. 1 thing to do ASAP to ensure you're ready (2/17/2021)
• The current state of eClosings: A Q&A with DocMagic's compliance chief (12/17/2020)
• DocMagic offers clients automatic audit of NMLS identification numbers (12/8/2020)