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Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/1122787
TH E M R EP O RT | 29 FEATURE SOMETIMES, IT'S GOOD TO BE A FOLLOWER. Follow MReport on social media to put the latest mortgage banking news, stories, strategies, and insights at the touch of your fingertips. MReport @TheMReportNews The MReport SOMETIMES, IT'S GOOD TO BE A FOLLOWER. Follow MReport on social media to put the latest mortgage banking news, stories, strategies, and insights at the touch of your fingertips. MReport @TheMReportNews The MReport own cause by utilizing a hybrid e-closing strategy for all their loan production. This helps settlement professionals, as well as the clos - ing departments, as it eliminates the need for both parties to "pick their swim lane." Instead, the lender simply draws the closing documents and determines just how "e" the transaction can be, preventing e-closings from being a special project or a bifurcated process. However, the onus isn't just on settlement agents to be as "e" as can be. Lenders must also do their part by committing to eliminating as much paper from the pro - cess as possible and supporting downstream digital processes, like e-recording. Given current market restraints, many lenders may still have to wet-sign the note and/or the recordables. Yet, the wet-signed security instrument can typically be e-recorded, creating a digital post-closing process for the lender. Regardless of the e-notary status of a county, it is en - tirely possible to execute the vast majority of the closing package electronically, and doing so goes a long way towards generating enough volume to create muscle memory with title partners to make e-closings the rule and not the exception. The shift to digital seems in - evitable at this point, especially as support for electronic/remote no- tarization continues to grow, but without buy-in from the settle- ment professionals, lenders could be facing a much longer road than they'd like. By making e-closing adoption easy for settlement and committing to executing a major - ity of loans as digitally as possible, lenders can dramatically condense the journey while delivering a superior process for all parties involved. NANCY ALLEY is VP of Strategic Planning for Provo, Utah-based Simplifile, an online service that connects lenders, settlement agents and counties. She can be reached at nancy.alley@simplifile.com.