Mortgage Bankers Association’s Annual Show Recap

MBA’s  annual convention is the largest and most content-packed mortgage industry conferences of the year. This year’s event in Austin, Texas, was no exception.

For those of you who may have missed the conference, key themes were eClosing and the increasing the acceptance of eNotes, economic trends and secondary market issues.

eNote Acceptance and RON

On the eMortgage front, Ginnie Mae made the exciting announcement that they are moving closer to accepting and utilizing eNotes (electronic promissory notes).

Docutech also made a splash at the conference with eMortgage developments. We announced our agreement to integrate with NotaryCam to provide Remote Online Notarization (RON) capabilities within Solex eClosing. When this integration is complete, borrowers will benefit by having the convenience of electronic notarization of applicable closing documents by way of a remote notary agent connected to the lending platform via webcam. 

Docutech has already facilitated over 30,000 eClosings to-date, now with RON and increasing acceptance of eNotes, we expect that volume to continue to gain momentum. You can learn more about our RON capability in the story picked up by HousingWire as well as this spotlight blog post.

Secondary Market Changes Open Up Possibility of More Competition

In secondary marketing news, executives at both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said they welcomed competition as they prepared for leaving conservatorship, they also said that any competitors should be required to follow the same rules as the GSEs and serve all aspects of the market. This could be a challenge for investors focused solely on Non-QM product.

One of the most significant secondary market impacts may come from the joint announcement made by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice. In a joint memo, the agencies said that HUD will now deal with False Claims Act violations mainly through administrative proceedings. This is expected to reduce lender risk, which could bring more lenders back to FHA lending.

Economic Indicators from Credit Reporting

Speaking of industry competition, FICO divulged its July credit score sales for July during the show, revealing it has sold 14.5 billion FICO scores for B2B so far this year. That’s more than the company sold in 2007, the year just prior to the financial crash.

Meanwhile, competing firm VantageScore reported that it sold 12.3 billion scores over a 12-month period between 2018 and 2019. A study by consulting firm Oliver Wyman showed that alternative credit scores are gaining on FICO, which it called “an important development in a transitioning time for the industry.”

Docutech Giving Back to the Community and Growing its Leadership

Docutech has spent decades providing the best document services in the industry, and we were honored to have the opportunity to give back this year. Austin’s NBC affiliate aired a story about the joint donation Docutech made with Volly to benefit the Community First! Village. We were proud to contribute to the $35,000 gift to aid the chronically homeless in Austin.

As the conference was just getting started, another group was meeting just across town. PROGRESS in Lending hosted an event for its members and announced its 2019 Lending Luminary award winners. We are very proud to announce that our own President and CEO Amy Brandt took home a Lending Luminary award this year.

A final piece of great news coming out of the show was HousingWire’s coverage of our new Chief Product Officer announcement. Adam Stern, former chief information officer for NewRez, has joined Docutech and will be responsible for leading new product innovation and ongoing optimization of Docutech’s ConformX, Solex eSign, eClosing and eVault programs.

As you plan for 2020 and beyond, now is the time to prepare for digital closings and take the steps needed to be as “e” as you can be. Click the link below and get started with eClosing, today.