Mortgage Finance Gazette
By the end of the year customers should be able to complete mortgage deeds online at HM Land Registry.
The Land Registry has been working on its digital mortgage service, ‘Sign Your Mortgage Deed’, for the past two years.
Shaun Ewings, product manager at HM Land Registry, explained the benefits of digital signatures: “Borrowers will save time as they won’t have to get their signatures witnessed or risk their documents being lost in the post. They will be able to log in and sign their deed at any time, meaning their application is more likely to move along more quickly.
Security
To ensure the right person is signing the deed, Land Registry has been working with the Government Digital Service (GDS) using GOV.UK Verify, the government identity assurance service.
By working with GDS, Land Registry can ensure that a borrower can verify their identity and digitally sign their mortgage deed.
Once it has been confirmed that the borrower is who they say they are through obtaining a Verify account, Land Registry will send them a security code by text message. The borrower can then input this code to confirm they are the person signing the deed.
Ewings continued: “The digital signature is not an electronic representation of a handwritten signature, but a secure way of confirming the content of a deed and the identity of the person signing it. The digital signature means that the content of the deed cannot be tampered with, or the content changed, without invalidating the signature.”
Once someone has used the Verify service and set up an account, they can use their same account to access an increasing range of government online services, such as applying for a driving licence and completing tax forms.
If users don’t want to use this service, there will still be the option of signing a paper deed and having their signature witnessed in the traditional way, but it will be slower.
Ewings said: “The first phase of this service is aimed at homeowners who are going through the process of remortgaging. Following some final testing , we aim to have completed the first fully digital remortgage deed later this year.”
First US mortgage to complete using electronic signatures
According to the Wall Street Journal, a mortgage has been completed remotely using electronic signatures.
A house in Illinois was bought using a mortgage from Michigan lender United Wholesale Mortgage using technology from online notary service Notarize.
The borrowers talked to a notary via Skype and verified their identity by answering questions and holding up their driver’s licenses.
Samuel Oliver, an executive at Freddie Mac told the Wall Street Journal: “We’ve purchased thousands of what we call electronic mortgages or e-notes where it is paperless, but this is the first transaction that we’re aware of where it was an entirely remote electronic online closing with all of the documents electronically signed.”
E-signature solutions
Tommy Petrogiannis, president at eSignLive by VASCO, said that it’s great to see the drive for a completely digital mortgage process going global.
He commented: “There has been a demand for some time now but many industry stakeholders have been reluctant to replace paper, raising concerns about compliance and security.
“However, best-in-class e-signature solutions already address these concerns though built-in workflow, presentation and delivery rules, and include authentication features to ensure the integrity of the signing process and the underlying document.
“Best of all, e-signature solutions enable the entire mortgage process to stay digital, rather than just enabling e-signing of the mortgage deed.
“E-signatures also bring a higher level of transparency and accountability, as well as the more seamless customer experience that today’s customer demands. This enables organisations to transact business in a safe and secure manner, while also providing a platform for much-needed digital transformation.”
