MISMO has announced the release of its Remote Online Notarization (RON) standards, which will enable the use of audio-visual communication devices to notarize documents in a virtual online environment.
MISMO’s
RON standards were updated to include language to preclude the storage of personally identifiable information. The standards support model legislation that was developed by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and the American Land Title Association (ALTA), which multiple U.S. states are now using to enact RON laws in their jurisdictions. MISMO noted that some states with RON legislation have already utilized draft versions of the MISMO RON standards to implement their state law.
MISMO released the standards for a public comment period that runs through Aug. 12, at which point the standards will be moved to Candidate Recommendation status if substantive comments are received in the comment period. The Candidate Recommendation status means the RON standards are ready for broad use across the entire residential mortgage industry.
“With states across the country enacting remote online notarization laws, MISMO's standards will support greater consistency as the volume of remote online notarial transactions increases,” said Eddie Oddo, Vice President of Corporate Business Solutions at First American Title Insurance Company, and co-chair of MISMO’s Remote Online Notarization Workgroup. “We're excited about this next stage in the standards process and look forward to seeing lenders, title companies, software vendors, and notaries leverage RON standards to offer borrowers a more secure and efficient closing process.”
MISMO’s announcement was also welcomed by David Burner, Strategic Planning and Partnership Manager at
Notarize, a Boston-based platform for legal online notarization.
“We are really excited that MISMO put together the standards for the industry,” said Burner. “There is so much talk about online notarization that sometimes it can be confusing. This was a collaborative effort among different stakeholders, and without MISMO this would not have happened.”
