Brian D. Pannell, DocMagic’s Chief eServices Executive, was named one of HousingWire’s 2020 Tech Trendsetters.

“This year has been one of the most challenging in my career, given the influx of requests to implement many of our solutions throughout the pandemic and refi boom that is setting volume records,” Pannell said. “But seeing all the hard work pay off for DocMagic’s clients and partners has been very gratifying, and receiving the Tech Trendsetters award at the end of this long year makes it all worthwhile.”

The award, now in its second year, was given to 50 of the housing industry’s most innovative technology leaders, across sectors such as residential mortgage lending, servicing, investing, construction, and real estate.

“Our Tech Trendsetters award recognizes a group of leaders who were critical to the outstanding performance of housing and real estate during this pandemic, finding innovative solutions when everything changed on a dime,” said HousingWire Editor in Chief Sarah Wheeler. “We’re very proud to celebrate their achievements and honor the impact they’ve had at such a crucial time.”

Throughout 2020, Pannell has racked up several key accomplishments, including:

• Helping clients implement multiple DocMagic solutions, including Total eClose, a 100% paperless eClosing platform that leverages our dynamic document generation capabilities, and DocMagic’s eVault and eNote process—not just for lenders but also for other members of the supply chain.
• Working on Secured Party and Master Servicer/Subservicer for the support of MERS, the Federal Home Loan Banks, Ginnie Mae, and the gap in servicing support for servicers that don’t have their own eVaults.
• Helping launch AutoPrep, a new technology that can convert documents from any lender into compliant e-enabled documents that can be used with Total eClose.
• Serving as an invaluable resource to the mortgage industry as a subject matter expert on end-to-end eMortgage automation, eSigning, eNotarization, eNotes, eVaults, eClosing, eWarehouse lending, and more.

Pannell has helped countless lending entities go “e” this year, enabling them to serve their customers during the pandemic. As an industry thought leader, he plays a key role in where digital mortgages are headed.

“In its second year, the 2020 Tech Trendsetters once again surpassed all expectations as the housing industry rose up to meet unprecedented challenges,” HousingWire Magazine Editor Kelsey Ramírez said. “This year’s Tech Trendsetters represent shapers whose innovative solutions continue to inspire the industry.”

Related Content:

• Survey: Homebuyers adapt to eSignings, remote closings during pandemic (10/29/2020)
• DocMagic's CEO honored with Lending Luminary Award (10/27/2020)
• DocMagic's Brian Pannell named winner of Thought Leader Award (6/18/2020)

DocMagic’s Chief eServices Executive Brian D. Pannell will be leading a webinar for the Electronic Signature and Records Association (ESRA) this Thursday, Dec. 3, at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET.

ESRA is an industry trade association that works to advance the adoption of digital transactions. Pannell serves on its Board of Directors.

This year mortgage technology—especially eNotarization—evolved in order to meet the challenge of closing safely in a pandemic. “eNotarization morphed into limited-touch notarization,” Pannell notes. This led to a rush by states to pass temporary emergency orders to allow remote online notarization (RON) closings, but also alternatives such a remote ink-signed notarization (RIN) and socially distanced in-person notarizations.

After seeing up close how lenders and borrowers have adapted to pandemic-driven changes in 2020, Pannell will share his insights and stories from the field about the mortgage industry's new tech normal.

Related Content:

• RON update: Lots of forward momentum—but also a setback (6/26/2020)
• DocMagic's Brian Pannell named winner of Thought Leader Award (6/18/2020)
• Webinar: How mortgage industry should adapt to COVID landscape (6/3/2020)

Community State Bank, which has seven locations across southeast Wisconsin, has implemented DocMagic’s full suite of eClosing solutions and is now offering their customers a 100% digital mortgage process—something that’s key in the middle of a pandemic.

“During these times of uncertainty, it is extremely important that our team be able to adjust quickly in order to continue serving our customers safely,” said Scott Huedepohl, Community State Bank President and CEO. “We’re very honored to be able to provide both a high-tech experience, while still offering personalized service to guide our customers along the way.”

Community State Bank, founded in 1898, partnered with DocMagic to implement technology and help ensure the highest levels of customer safety during the pandemic. But in addition to safety, the bank also sought to offer borrowers a faster and more efficient loan process.

“By utilizing DocMagic, our mortgage team can now offer customers the option of signing mortgage documents electronically, from the moment they apply through closing,” said Community State Bank Vice President of Mortgage Operations Shakil Haider. 

Using the Total eClose platform, Community State Bank is also now offering remote online notarizations (RON), eNote generation, secure eVault storing capabilities, and direct connectivity to the MERS® eRegistry. Recently, MERS featured Community State Bank in its monthly newsletter, congratulating the lender for completing its integration. Community State Bank is, as of late November, one of just 74 originators integrated with the MERS eRegistry—nationwide.

“Community State Bank has put their customers’ needs at the forefront by implementing our automated, end-to-end lending platform,” said Dominic Iannitti, President and CEO at DocMagic. “We provide our clients with an agile and technology-forward mortgage process that ensures they can sustain and scale critical business processes.”

Customers have praised the new digital process. Gary Strand, who recently closed a mortgage with Community State Bank, noted, “Our experience was very simple from start to finish. Having the option to close our loan online shows they are willing to accommodate their customers’ needs and busy schedules while also keeping safety in mind during the pandemic.”

Related Content:

• DocMagic, VirPack integrate platforms (10/1/2020)
• DocMagic teams up with Simplifile to facilitate eClosing adoption (7/27/2020)
• MortgageCountry closing loans in 13 days using DocMagic solutions (7/21/2020)

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently released a new version of Form 4506, as Form 4506-C, IVES Request for Transcript of Tax Return (version September 2020). 

Previously, the IRS posted an updated Form 4506-T (version June 2019) which removed Line 5a, which covers mailing tax transcripts to third parties, and replaced the “Caution” statement after Line 5 with the following “Note: Effective July 2019, the IRS will mail tax transcript requests only to your address of record. See What’s New under Future Developments on Page 2 for additional information.” This updated version of Form 4506-T could no longer be utilized for third party tax transcript requests, but the IRS continued to accept the prior March 2019 version which does allow for third party requests.

How a new lender found success amid the pandemic: Download the MortgageCountry case study

With the release of the new Form 4506-C, the IRS announced it will only continue to accept Form 4506-T (version March 2019) for all tax transcript order requests through Feb. 28, 2021.

Starting March 1, 2021, only Form 4506-C will be accepted for use by authorized Income Verification Express Service (IVES) Participants to order tax transcripts records electronically. Line 5a of the new form allows for participating IVES Participants information to be entered.

DocMagic postponed changing to Form 4506-T (version June 2019) and has continued to provide the March 2019 version of the form so that it could continue to be used by all customers and our IVES partners.

DocMagic will make the new Form 4506-C (DocMagic Form ID: 4506C.MSC) available upon request starting Nov. 19, 2020. Currently, DocMagic is working on implementation with IVES partners and awaiting guideline updates to be made by agencies and the secondary market to allow use of the new form. DocMagic will announce the default addition of Form 4506-C to initial and closing packages in the coming weeks.

Should you have any questions, please contact DocMagic’s Compliance Department at compliance@docmagic.com.

Related Content:

• CFPB's 5-year TRID assessment produces mixed results (10/15/2020)
• California enacts consumer financial protection law (10/7/2020)
• The redesigned URLA will be required in 5 months; are you ready? (9/24/2020)

(Update: On Nov. 5, Michigan enacted HB6297, which confirms the validity of remote notarizations performed between April 30, 2020 and Jan. 1, 2021, and HB6296, which requires registers of deeds and financial institutions to accept electronic documents notarized during that same period. The state later extended the deadline for both laws to July 1, 2021.)

When the pandemic hit in March, Michigan already had a law on the books that allowed remote online notarization (RON) closings. But the state took it a step further when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) declared a state of emergency and issued a series of executive orders, including one allowing the use of remote ink-signed notarization (RIN), a lower-tech alternative to RON.

"We conclude that the Governor lacked the authority to declare a 'state of emergency' or a 'state of disaster' … after April 30, 2020, on the basis of the COVID-19 pandemic," Justice Stephen J. Markman wrote.

The Oct. 2 ruling, plus a related ruling on Oct. 12, nullifies hundreds of Whitmer’s emergency orders, including the one that authorized RIN, which allows notaries and borrowers to use audiovisual technology to remotely notarize and ink-sign paper documents. 

“Hundreds, if not thousands, of mortgages have been recorded in Michigan since the start of the pandemic, many employing notarization processes approved by the nullified Executive Orders, and have been thereafter accepted for filing by county recorders,” noted an analysis by law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP. “Many [mortgages] may have been recorded using RIN or other procedures that were approved by order but not part of the statute itself.”

While the analysis found that RIN was likely legal up until Oct. 12, “borrowers and their lawyers will doubtless argue that mortgages submitted for recording in reliance on the emergency orders are somehow void, and lenders will doubtless be considering various potential fixes to avoid this otherwise likely line of collateral attack.”

To clear up any confusion, the authors urged the Michigan legislature “to move quickly to ensure the validity of mortgages recorded under the expanded procedures.”

While RIN closings have become more popular in recent months due to COVID-inspired social distancing guidelines, the mortgage industry's response has been mixed. Fannie Mae’s RIN guidance encouraged lenders to consider RIN only if RON wasn’t available, due to the RIN emergency orders being temporary.

“I see RIN as essentially using new technology to hold onto an old way of conducting notarizations. That seems oxymoronic,” said Gavin Ales, DocMagic’s Chief Compliance Officer. “It’s adding in extra steps when you don’t need to because you can conduct actual remote online notarizations using available software.”

Nonetheless, some states are still supporting RIN use during the pandemic. Minnesota, which also has a permanent RON law, recently passed legislation to temporarily allow RIN, while last week the governor of Tennessee—another state with a RON law—extended his executive order allowing RIN through the end of the year.

Permanent RON laws, meanwhile, are now on the books in 28 states. The latest state, Hawaii, passed its law on Sept 15, making it the sixth state to take action this year.

Related Content:

• Survey: Homebuyers adapt to eSignings, remote closings during pandemic (10/29/2020)
• Benefits of remote online notarization (RON) can't be overstated (10/22/2020)  
• RON vs. RIN (remote ink-signed notarization): What's the difference? (6/10/2020) 

Homeowners have adapted well to eSignings and remote closings and are very satisfied with their overall closing experience, according to a new national survey of people who bought and refinanced homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As we’ve seen throughout 2020, this crisis is accelerating adoption and acceptance of e-transactions, and when things return to normal, eSigning and eClosings will be the new normal,” said Bob Jennings, CEO of ClosingCorp, a residential real estate closing cost data and technology firm, which sponsored the survey.

The survey comprised phone interviews with 691 borrowers nationwide who had conducted a mortgage transaction between March 15 and Aug. 31. Among the respondents, 15% were homebuyers, 79% were refinance customers, and 6% were both. About 35% were first-time homebuyers.

The findings included:

• 95% of borrowers said their closings were efficient and 90% said they were satisfied with their closings. Most of the transactions involved eSigning and remote closings.
• 89% of homebuyers and 84% of refinance customers eSigned either their disclosure, closing documents, or both.
• 55% of the surveyed borrowers said their closings were conducted remotely and not in traditional locations, such as a title company or lender’s office.

The borrowers who were less comfortable with remote closings were older (age 55 and up).

The results bode well for the mortgage industry’s trend toward digitization. More than two-thirds of survey participants say that for future transactions they’d prefer remote closings to in-person closings, and 82% reported that they prefer eSigning documents prior to closing.

DocMagic's Director of Enterprise Solutions Chris Lewis said the survey results are a positive sign for the industry: “It’s unfortunate that it took a pandemic to move the adoption curve in the right direction, but ultimately, it’s going to serve the mortgage industry well by further automating the paper-based processes of yesteryear that were hampering business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer efficiency."

DocMagic provides a full suite of digital mortgage solutions, including eSignatures and Total eClose, a comprehensive solution that enables a 100% paperless eClosing process from start to finish.

The study was jointly designed by STRATMOR Group.

“Despite the disruption caused by the pandemic and the workarounds that the lending and title companies have had to quickly put in place, borrowers continue to be satisfied with the mortgage closing process,” said Jim Cameron, Senior Partner at STRATMOR Group. “It suggests that the more electronic—or ‘e’—each step in the process becomes, the higher the satisfaction.”

Related Content:

• Benefits of remote online notarization (RON) can't be overstated (10/22/2020) 
• CFPB's 5-year TRID assessment produces mixed results (10/15/2020) 
• Ginnie Mae, 3 FHLBanks start accepting eNotes (8/5/2020) 

DocMagic CEO and President Dominic Iannitti was named a Lending Luminary award winner by the PROGRESS in Lending Association. The honor, now in its 2^nd annual year, was awarded to just 25 people across the mortgage industry, including bankers, lenders, servicers, technology executives, consultants, and more.

“Right now the market is filled with uncertainty, but these true Lending Luminaries are better handling and navigating the constantly fluctuating market conditions,” PROGRESS in Lending stated in announcing the award. “These executives deserve to be recognized for their industry vision and leadership.”

Iannitti was selected thanks to several key accomplishments over the last year that led DocMagic to success. One of the main accomplishments was the April launch of AutoPrep, a new technology that leverages AI, OCR, and machine learning technologies to fully e-enable a document for paperless eClosings. This means any loan document from virtually any provider can be used with DocMagic’s comprehensive, single-source Total eClose platform.

AutoPrep was a significant R&D investment and technology strategy to help more lenders perform eClosings.

”I’m a firm believer that these innovations work to establish much-needed interoperability between disparate systems and critical entities within the digital mortgage ecosystem,” Iannitti told PROGRESS in Lending. “Our goal is for our industry-leading eClosing platform to be completely open, handling documents from all vendors and sources without any manual effort or additional labor required.”

Iannitti was also recognized for helping DocMagic clients adapt to the pandemic environment, including social distancing measures and work-from-home (WFH) orders. Numerous lenders used Total eClose to execute mortgage closings electronically. Additionally, as more states passed emergency remote online notarization (RON) laws, Iannitti ensured that DocMagic was ready to quickly and effectively respond to clients’ urgent need for RON within the Total eClose platform.

Related Content:

• DocMagic's Lori Johnson honored with HousingWire's 2020 Insiders Award (9/3/2020)
• DocMagic's Brian Pannell named winner of Thought Leader Award (6/18/2020)
• New AutoPrep tech accepts docs from ANY provider for paperless eClosings (4/3/2020)

Earlier this month the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a five-year lookback assessment of the TRID rule—and its findings contain mixed results.

However, the assessment also found that lenders and closing companies have paid significant costs for compliance.

The 316-page report, released Oct. 1, was mandated by the Dodd-Frank Act. The CFPB conducted three industry surveys (of lenders, loan officers, and closing companies) for the assessment and began soliciting public comment last November.

Here are some of its key findings:

• TRID created “sizable implementation costs” for lenders and closing companies. According to industry surveys, the typical cost for a lender to implement TRID was $146 per mortgage originated in 2015 (about 2% of the average cost of originating a mortgage), while the typical cost for a closing company to implement TRID was $39 per closing in 2015 (about 10% of the average cost of closing).
• Respondents to the lender survey reported their largest implementation costs were due to new information technology systems, policies, and training.
• TRID appears to have initially decreased mortgage originations and increased closing times, but both returned to pre-TRID levels in a relatively short period of time.
• On the consumer side, TRID “improved consumers’ ability to locate key information, compare terms and costs between initial disclosures and final disclosures, and compare terms and costs across mortgage offers.”

The CFPB also released a Data Point that examined data for approximately 50,000 mortgages. Here are some of its key findings:

• Almost 90% of mortgage loans involved at least one revision, 62% received at least one revised Loan Estimate (LE), and 49% received at least one corrected Closing Disclosure (CD).
• The prevalence of changes between the first LE and the last CD varied greatly: APR changes occurred in more than 40% of mortgages; loan amount and the loan to value ratio changed for almost 25% of mortgages, and the interest rate changed for 8% of mortgages.

Related Content:

• California enacts consumer financial protection law (10/7/2020)
• The redesigned URLA will be required in 5 months; are you ready? (9/24/2020)
• FHFA, other agencies announce extension of COVID-related policies (9/16/2020)