TheMReport — News and strategies for the evolving mortgage marketplace.
Issue link: http://digital.themreport.com/i/579595
TH E M R EP O RT | 33 FEATURE T he digital age has finally reached the mortgage industry. After decades of chatter about the coming of the eMortgage, the industry is closer than ever, thanks to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB's) eClosing pilot. However, for those lenders still delivering mortgage documents in hard copy or even spot solutions, the writing is on the wall, so to speak. Now is the time to bring both your front-end and closing processes electronic, not only to remain competitive and keep pace with the industry, but also to improve your ability to succeed in the current and future regulatory environment. Digital Revolution T he TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule was built for an automated environment, no question. One could point to the "snail mail" proviso for delivery of the Closing Disclosure (CD) as a counterargument to this supposition. However, given the care that the regulation takes to outline a specific timeline between document delivery and closing, it's clear that the CFPB is planning for the day when all lenders deliver documents to the consumer electronically. What you may not recall is that TRID and the eClosing pilot are both part of the CFPB's "Know Before You Owe" initiative. The overarching goal to the eClosing pilot and TRID is to improve the home-buying experience for consumers. The fact that these two enter - prises are so closely tied together is no accident, as the CFPB has been one of the first regulatory bodies to design its policies with technology in mind. Industry veterans that have had to grapple with automating manual- or paper-centric polices should view the CFPB's technology-centric focus as a welcome change. Furthermore, the CFPB's report on the results of the eClosing pilot, "Leveraging technology to empower mortgage consumers at closing," indicate that there were tangible benefits to consum - ers conducting their mortgage closing electronically and, on a TRID-related note, receiving the CD earlier via a digital format. Take a look at some of the "Key Findings" from the report: » » The largest differences between borrowers who participated in an eClosing and a paper closing were in our measures of perceived empowerment and efficiency. » » Differences across these key outcomes were particularly pronounced in purchase trans- actions. » » In the pilot, early document review was more prevalent in eClosing than in paper closings. » » For purchase transactions in the pilot, borrowers experienc- ing an eClosing scored higher than consumers in the paper closing group on perceived