Equity National Title has completed the first fully digital closing to be initiated through its eWays portal. The closing took place in Sanford, Fla. This is the first time a mortgage lender has used the portal to identify a county where a fully electronic closing is possible and subsequently identified a loan applicant residing in one of those counties. Digital Federal Credit Union, based in Marlborough, Mass., was the lender.
Equity National Title’s eWays is a first-of-its-kind “e-closing” hub for mortgage lenders designed to identify the types of electronic closings available at a zip code level. The portal serves mortgage lenders by clarifying whether key authorities in each zip code accept none, all or some combination of the four existing types of closing: Fully digital; hybrid; remote notary or traditional. The Web site can be found at
eClosingsByEquity.com.
“This is a leap forward for lenders who want to pursue an e-closing strategy. Rather than waiting for state laws to change and recording offices to come online, lenders can execute an e-closing strategy in nearly 500 counties, and our lender found a few that matched borrowers in their pipeline,” said James K. O’Donnell Esq., President of Equity National Title. “In those counties, there are nearly six million people, which means a pretty sizeable market exists eligible for e-closings. Digital Federal Credit Union took a great first step by using eWays to begin executing their e-closing strategy.”
“We had a goal of completing at least one fully electronic closing by the end of the year. Using eWays, we were able to hit our goal more than two months ahead of schedule and not just once, but three times this month alone,” said Jay Caldwell, Mortgage Operations Manager for Digital Federal Credit Union. “We were amazed at how quickly we were able to zero in on applicants eligible for an e-closing using eWays. It really simplified our e-closing roadmap, helped us deliver early on our pilot, and the members that took part in the pilot were impressed with the ease of utilizing eWays. There were high-fives all around at our management team meeting when we confirmed both closings!”
