Our Collaborative Closing Solution is a seamless 2-Way data exchange between lenders and settlement providers!

DocMagic brings lenders, settlement providers and associates together inside our new Collaborative Closing Platform to view and exchange data, coordinate closing costs and audit critical disclosure details prior to closing. DocMagic’s Collaborative Closing Platform is a secure, seamless and dynamic web-based solution designed to efficiently help you meet TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure requirements.

An electronic, workflow-driven system automates the collaboration between lenders and their settlement providers:

• Lenders & settlement providers work in sync inside our Collaborative Closing Platform
• Electronic access to edit, validate and approve MISMO 3.3 compliant, content-enabled XML disclosure documents
• Settlement provider changes automatically sync with TRID forms upon lender approval
• Automatically track TRID tolerance audits, fee increases and their related approvals
• Electronically deliver, sign, manage, and store documents via DocMagic’s eSign technology
• Complete electronic audit trail to document compliance with TRID’s timing requirements and other significant events
• Seamless integration with title, closing, and LOS systems

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE

Press Release:
Major partnership enables DocMagic to compliantly process a fully paperless, true mortgage eClosing - from start to finish

TORRANCE, Calif., March 10, 2015 - DocMagic, Inc., the premier provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, compliance, eSign and eDelivery solutions, announced today that it formed an exclusive strategic alliance with World Wide Notary, Inc. (WWN), a pioneering developer of electronic notarization services. The partnership integrates WWN's patent pending DigaSign eNotary technology into DocMagic's eServices platform to deliver a fully paperless eClosing solution.

The solution allows borrowers, lenders, settlement agents and mobile notaries to eSign documents and eNotarize - both online and offline. As a result, the entire closing process is streamlined, paper is eliminated, costs are reduced and compliance is ensured.

"The addition of WWN's advanced eNotary capability adds significant value to our platform by keeping mortgage closing documents 100 percent paperless from eDisclosure to eClosing," said Dominic Iannitti, president and CEO of DocMagic. "DocMagic has systematically been putting the necessary pieces in place to transform the company into a true end-to-end eServices solutions provider. Our exclusive arrangement with WWN incorporates a critical component: compliant eNotarizations. Without compliant eNotary capability, a fully paperless eClosing would be impossible to achieve."

WWN is one of the most dominant eNotarization companies and has long been at the forefront of educating and lobbying the state Attorneys General and Secretaries of State to accept eNotaries in a variety of different industries. The company's technology has been certified by multiple Secretaries of State under the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) eNotary standards; and, in all states that have approved the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA).

A number of efficiencies accompany WWN's DigaSign eNotary technology that includes dramatically speeding up the notary process on mortgage documents, with Internet connection or without, ensuring strict compliance adherence is met, establishing detailed audit trails, reducing errors, slashing processing costs, reducing risk, and enhancing the overall borrower closing experience. The solution centralizes and streamlines the entire eNotarization process.

"DocMagic is the leading loan document preparation software company in the mortgage industry and an ideal partner to marry our technologies," said Bob Rice, CEO of WWN. "To date, most eClosings have just been hybrids, meaning: a majority of the lender documents could be eSigned, but those that require a notaries' signature and seal had to be printed to paper and ink signed. Together, our technologies eliminate that hard stop in the process and allow borrowers to effortlessly eSign mortgage documents, now including those that require the presence of a notary."

Under the agreement, DocMagic has exclusive rights to utilize WWN's eNotary platform within the mortgage industry for an extended period of time. The two companies have already begun introducing the service to clients.

About DocMagic:
DocMagic, Inc. is a leading provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, compliance, eSign and eDelivery solutions for the mortgage industry. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Torrance, Calif., DocMagic, Inc. develops software, mobile apps, processes and web-based systems for the production and delivery of compliant loan document packages. The company's compliance experts and in-house legal staff constantly monitor legal and regulatory changes at both the federal and state levels to ensure accuracy. For more information on DocMagic, visit http://www.docmagic.com/.

About World Wide Notary:
Based in Vernon, Texas and founded in 2003, World Wide Notary (WWN) has developed DigaSign, an innovative, simple, Internet-based service that expedites the signing and/or notarization of documents by utilizing electronic and digital signatures and electronic notarizations. WWN completed the first fully electronic, mortgage closing in California in 2008 and the first electronic real estate closing in Texas in 2004. Pioneering electronic signatures, as early as 1996, WWN's management team has many years of experience working with stringent Federal mandates, such as HIPAA, E-SIGN and UETA regarding security and the use of electronic and digital signatures. Visit the company's website for more information http://www.wwnotary.com/.

At DocMagic we’re all about making things simple. This often requires us to integrate with the other technologies you use in your business every day.

In this edition of The DocMagic Moment, Ron discusses the recent DocMagic completed its integration with the Liquid Logics loan origination system (LOS), produced by bFocused. "Everything is integrated into the LOS, including document packages, compliance, eSign, e-delivery, e-appraisal, BorrowerMobile, and perhaps most important, the delivery of electronic documents to borrowers."

Listen Now:

[audio mp3="https://docmagicinc.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/podcast_11-7-14b_mp3_96kbit_44khz_stereo.mp3"][/audio]

By Dominic Iannitti
President and CEO,
DocMagic, Inc.

When the Mortgage Bankers Association released the most recent MBA Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report, few industry professionals should have been surprised to learn that loan originators achieved the lowest average profit per loan since the MBA began tracking performance in 2008. Likewise, loan origination expenses were the highest recorded in any quarter since the Performance Report was created midway through 2008.

How far has loan origination profitability fallen? The average per-origination profit among independent mortgage banks and mortgage banking subsidiaries of chartered banks in 4Q 2013 weighed in at an anemic $150, according to the MBA report. That’s down from $743 per loan in the third quarter. Meanwhile, loan production expenses increased by $591, to $6,959 per loan from the previous quarter.

Certainly the drop in mortgage originations, approaching 40% for some of the nation’s largest lenders, along with the inclement weather much of the nation received earlier this year, contributed to mortgage bankers’ current financial performance. Coupled with the precipitous rise in compliance-related expenses the industry has been experiencing, the lending side of the mortgage business is feeling the squeeze. According to the MBA, lenders are earning only 7% of what they had been making just one year ago. Obviously, this is not sustainable.

Right now there is little that mortgage executives can do about the drop in loan volume aside from acquiring new business by taking it from someone else -- assuming it is even worth the modest financial return. Likewise, there’s no evidence to suggest that the regulatory compliance environment is going to get any simpler or less expensive in the future. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is still making rules and increasing the challenges of compliance, per its mandate. Compounding these challenges, much of the mortgage industry persists in using outdated methods of complying with the plethora of new rules intended to protect consumers’ financial interests.

As our business moves into this new era of low profitability, increased expenses, and intense regulatory scrutiny, virtually every mortgage executive needs to experiment with ways to increase productivity and CFPB compliance while reducing overall operating costs.

In this short article, I want to focus on just one change lenders can make to increase profits on each loan they close: managing third-parties contracted to perform CFPB-compliant loan production and quality control functions rather than performing them in-house.

Changing the way we think about compliance
Traditionally, regulatory compliance was built into the automation via business rules. Then, a quality control or assurance team at the end of the line would spot check certain loans for compliance problems. That no longer works today. That’s because checking boxes in a form -- a lot of forms -- at the center of a rules-based system, can do little to identify the intentions and motivations of persons shepherding borrowers through the mortgage application, underwriting and approval process. The old standard for underwriting was the safety and soundness of the financial institution, as evidenced by check boxes and if/then rules. The new standard is the protection of consumers’ financial interests. Where is the checkbox for that?

As rules-based underwriting becomes ever more antiquated, lenders are finding it challenging to analyze every loan coming through the pipeline. In a zero tolerance regulatory environment, spot-checking loans that fall outside a predetermined set of tolerance triggers isn’t enough. Lenders need to find ways to proactively identify and rectify problems earlier in the process if they hope to reduce costs. If all of the discussion that has led us to this point has not been effective in getting lenders to this realization, I feel confident that the current erosion of their profitability will do so.

Throwing more bodies at the situation is no solution
The first thought that may occur to lenders trapped in today’s situation might be to throw more bodies at the problem. This is a compelling solution, at first glance, because the new federal regulator can, and has already, imposed harsh penalties on firms that violate the regulations. Unfortunately, this is not a sustainable option for lenders. With only a few hundred dollars of profit per loan, they can’t afford more bodies. Staffing up isn’t a viable alternative.

Even if they could recruit, train, house and manage enough workers to guarantee compliance, the fix comes at a steep price. Mortgage lending is a cyclical business where volumes rise now only to fall later. Adding to headcount and then reducing it invites all kinds of costs, both hard and soft. The emotional turmoil that comes with downsizing alone is often not worth the cost.

Then, there are the risks to the bank’s reputation as an employment destination of choice. And there is the increase in costs associated with divesting the firm of now unneeded physical facilities, equipment, and all the sunken costs associated with the employee ramp-up. Not to mention the less obvious but equally expensive hits to employers, who must attend to unemployment claims, and potentially higher State Unemployment Insurance (SUI) tax rates, which can increase as more claims are filed.

Especially in the current economic and regulatory environment, lenders have to use automation to make compliance affordable, but if their database of record, the LOS, can’t keep up with the changes, how can they accomplish this? Put simply, they can’t. But they may be able to hand it off. This is where outsourcing selected processes and oversight responsibilities to third-party vendors enters the mix.

Finding the right partner to handle compliance
As soon as Dodd-Frank was signed into law, companies began springing up to provide compliance and quality control support to lenders. Many of these firms were started by former loan underwriters who had been displaced by automation and were now needed to solve some of the problems those automated underwriting systems allowed to happen. Others were technology firms that promised to provide QC automation that would solve the lender’s CFPB-related compliance problems.

Unfortunately, lenders did not find what they needed in this new crop of vendors. Changing rules, differences in the way lenders operate their businesses and, in some cases, incompetence rendered these vendors and their technological solutions ineffective. But that is not to say that the right partner wasn’t available. In fact, lenders are already working with them.

Very few loan origination systems come with built-in document design, preparation and delivery -- and for good reason. Technologists will tell you that it’s a full time job, keeping a good LOS up to speed and working well. Dealing with the documents is too much for them to handle. Documents are constantly changing in response to new rules, new investor requirements and new product development. Consequently, many LOSs are tightly integrated with a document preparation vendor.

Tight integration with document preparation allows the lender to send information from the LOS effortlessly to the doc prep team at any point in the process. It happens in the early stages, to ensure that the upfront disclosures are prepared correctly, delivered to the borrower in time, signed and returned. If anything in the deal changes, as often occurs, the doc prep provider re-discloses, using information provided directly from the LOS. Three days before the loan is scheduled to close, the document provider will deliver updated disclosure and related documentation to the borrower and finally, at the closing table, the final closing package is delivered.

By partnering with the doc prep provider to track the deal throughout the entire lending process, compliance becomes continual. As information is added to the file, it is validated against the document vendor’s compliance engine before documents are produced. Problems are identified, if present, and the system can stop the process in its tracks and before any documents are provided. The lender never falls out of compliance.

Today, the lender’s document preparation vendor is working alongside the originator from beginning to end. This partner sees all of the data, watches for changes and discloses those changes when they occur. The service these companies are offering today goes well beyond processing and providing documents. It can deliver a continuous audit of the data involved in the transaction. This is the perfect place for data validation, compliance checking and quality assurance to occur.

In fact, today some lenders have access to sophisticated compliance systems that check for QM, ATR, ECOA and every other rule and regulation that lenders must observe in order to originate compliant loans, all through the same compliance engine. When the price of this kind of continuous, experienced and active compliance validation is compared to maintaining an in-house staff of compliance and QC professionals, it is clear that the document preparation vendor IS the compliance partner of the future.

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About the author:
Dominic Iannitti is President and CEO of Torrance, Calif.-based DocMagic, a firm that offers fully-compliant loan document preparation, compliance, eSign and eDelivery solutions for the mortgage industry. He can be reached at don@docmagic.com.

Press Release: Consortium lenders who use this LOS now have access to industry-leading doc prep and eDelivery

TORRANCE, Calif.—DocMagic, Inc., the leading provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, compliance, eSign and eDelivery solutions for the mortgage industry, announced today that DocMagic is now available from within the Liquid Logics loan origination system (LOS) produced by bFocused. Liquid Logics is a cloud based LOS that is currently in use by a consortium of consumer direct lenders.

“We’re very proud of this integration effort and what it will mean to users of the Liquid Logics LOS,” said Steve Ribultan, Director of Business Development for DocMagic. “We’re integrating everything: document packages, compliance, eSign, e-delivery, e-appraisal, BorrowerMobile, and perhaps most important the delivery of electronic documents to borrowers. It is a seamless integration that allows lenders to check compliance, generate document packages and deliver them to borrowers electronically from within their “system of record”.

“This is not a client/vendor relationship in the traditional sense, in which the partners want to be equal and yet the client calls all the shots,” said Sam Kaddah, president and CEO of Liquid Logics LLC. “It is a proactive partnership whose aim is to provide our customer base a friendly, cooperative, and truly web-based LOS application including docs, mobile experience and compliance.”

DSI’s comprehensive compliance and pioneering in the industry’s eDelivery/eSign tools were primary factors in Liquid Logics’ decision to pursue the partnership, Mr. Kaddah said. “There are other doc providers but no one else has the ‘proactive compliance checks’ that DSI offers. We can launch compliance checks whenever material changes in the information hit the LOS system. It returns feature-rich findings that people in the system can use to make changes on the fly.”

Currently available functionality includes production, e-delivery and eSignature of the borrower’s origination documents, including initial disclosure and redisclosure document packages. Additional functionality will be rolled out to users over the next few months. Ribultan says he expects a complete integration by year’s end.

“Our lender clients expect to have access to best software and services available anywhere in the industry,” said Derrick Logan, Senior Vice President of Strategic Development for Loan Logics. “This integration with DocMagic delivers that. We’re proud to be working with DocMagic.”

About Liquid Logics LLC

Liquid Logics, Kansas City, was founded in 2004 and is the first Cloud-based Mortgage Loan Origination System built around the consumer process and required information flow instead of the outdated industry workflow. Built to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction, Liquid Logics includes support for the entire loan production cycle, including a Cloud-based consumer portal, a trusted automated underwriting engine, full support for appraisal management -- with or without an AMC -- and a built-in, fully configured analytics dashboard. Liquid Logics is the only LOS that manages complex communications between the borrower, the lender and other third parties while maintaining a detailed audit trail of both communications and changes to the loan for compliance purposes. The LOS manages all communications between the parties, regardless of their platform, including mobile device, PC or tablet. For more information, please visit http://liquidlogics.com or contact the firm directly at 816-295-6240.

About DocMagic

DocMagic, Inc. is a leading provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, compliance, eSign and eDelivery solutions for the mortgage industry. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Torrance, Calif., DocMagic, Inc. develops software, mobile apps, processes and web-based systems for the production and delivery of compliant loan document packages. DocMagic guarantees and warrants that all agency forms are up to date and in compliance with GSE requirements. The company’s compliance experts and in-house legal staff constantly monitor legal and regulatory changes at both the federal and state levels to ensure accuracy. For more information on DocMagic, visit www.docmagic.com.

Press Release:
They did it with an FHA hybrid eClosing earlier this year. This time, they tackle a VA loan.

TORRANCE, Calif.-September 2, 2014- DocMagic, Inc., the leading provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, compliance, eSign and eDelivery solutions for the mortgage industry, is proud to announce that the firm has partnered again with Mountain America Credit Union to provide a paperless loan closing, this time for a loan insured by the Veteran's Administration. To the company's knowledge, this is one of the first VA loans that have been closed electronically since the VA made the announcement that it would begin accepting eSigned loan documents late last year.

"Mountain America Credit Union is committed to serving the men and women of the armed forces -- both those currently serving and our veterans -- by offering VA loans in a paperless environment," said Amy Moser, Vice President and Mortgage Services Manager for the Utah-based credit union. "Until now, few institutions could serve our military personnel effectively, especially those serving overseas. This loan closing proves that we can accommodate the needs of our armed forces personnel and veterans no matter where in the world they may be."

This is a significant milestone in the evolution of eClosings. Despite a VA announcement last fall that electronic signatures are acceptable for use in conjunction with the VA Home Loan program, uncertainty about whether electronic signatures were valid regarding initial disclosure only, or both initial and final disclosure(s) constrained adoption of the program. The VA's announcement confirms that its eSignature program applies to all disclosures. Mountain America Credit Union used DocMagic's patented eSign functionality for the disclosures and the closing documents.

"The government agencies involved in the home finance industry have now all confirmed that eSign is an important technology for the future," said Tim Anderson, Director of eServices for DocMagic. "Mountain America Credit Union has led the way again, becoming among the first, if not the first, to go the distance with paperless origination of a VA loan. We congratulate Mountain America for their leadership and for making it easier to do business with them than their paper based competitors."

Among the many benefits of electronic transactions, beyond gains in efficiency, recordkeeping, and security, members of the military and their families, including active duty personnel serving around the globe, gain the convenience of closing VA loans remotely. This is a significant improvement over paper-based disclosures and documentation. DocMagic and Mountain America executives are pleased to be among the first to make this service available to the industry.

About DocMagic

DocMagic, Inc. is a leading provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, compliance, eSign and eDelivery solutions for the mortgage industry. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Torrance, Calif., DocMagic, Inc. develops software, mobile apps, processes and web-based systems for the production and delivery of compliant loan document packages. DocMagic guarantees and warrants that all agency forms are up to date and in compliance with GSE requirements. The company's compliance experts and in-house legal staff constantly monitor legal and regulatory changes at both the federal and state levels to ensure accuracy. For more information on DocMagic, visit www.docmagic.com.

Press Release:
DocMagic participates in offering industry platform to support paperless lending

TORRANCE, Calif.-August 21, 2014-DocMagic, Inc., the leading provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, compliance, eSign and eDelivery solutions for the mortgage industry, announced today that its strategic alliance with Pavaso will be expanded to allow the two firms to serve Franklin First Financial, Melville, New York, in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's eClosing pilot program.

"Lenders are now ready for a completely paperless loan closing process," said Dominic Iannitti, President and CEO of DocMagic. "Digital Close from Pavaso is designed to be a neutral technology platform that seamlessly integrates with other systems. That, along with DocMagic's eSign, eVault and eDelivery offerings, provides a fully supported, shrink-wrapped solution for anyone to do an eClosing. This partnership will show the industry and the CFPB that any lender can make the closing process better for consumers through the use of a completely electronic process without incurring the time and cost of creating or maintaining their own systems."

Pavaso and its Digital Close platform have been approved by the CFPB for participation in the eClosing pilot program.

"One of the prior issues with getting adoption for eClosing was providing the title and closing agents with a simple solution they could use to support their part of the closing process," said Tim Anderson, Director of eServices for DocMagic. "Pavaso has developed a system that can easily be implemented as a web service, allowing all participants involved in the transaction to sign up, log on and use it."

On its website, the CFPB says it expects its new pilot program to make it easier for borrowers to understand the closing process, and give borrowers more time to review the closing documents while providing them time to find and fix errors in documents prior to closing. All of these goals relate to complaints the agency has received from consumers.

"Paperless lending is the future for our industry and our Digital Close opens up a world of opportunity for stakeholders who want to better serve consumers and comply with new federal regulations," said Chris Ayoub, Pavaso's chief operating officer. "We can drive costs out of the equation for lenders and give borrowers the experience they've been seeking in the home finance process."

About Pavaso
Pavaso is an innovative technology company in the Real Estate Closing industry. We've created a powerful digital closing platform that takes the best of the web's collaboration and social features, integrations, analytics and enterprise scalability to bring everyone in the closing process together on the same page. For more information on how our platform and solution offerings can help you meet TILA-RESPA compliance, digitally transform your organization, and dramatically enhance the consumer experience, call us at 214.377.1795 or visit www.pavaso.com to request a demonstration of this revolutionary solution.

About DocMagic
DocMagic, Inc. is a leading provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, compliance, eSign and eDelivery solutions for the mortgage industry. Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Torrance, Calif., DocMagic, Inc. develops software, mobile apps, processes and web-based systems for the production and delivery of compliant loan document packages. DocMagic guarantees and warrants that all agency forms are up to date and in compliance with GSE requirements. The company's compliance experts and in-house legal staff constantly monitor legal and regulatory changes at both the federal and state levels to ensure accuracy. For more information on DocMagic, visit www.docmagic.com.

DocMagic Inc. has announced that its eSign and eDelivery process has been approved by New Penn Financial to deliver compliant initial disclosures for approved correspondent lenders who sell their production to the mortgage company.

“Helping correspondent lenders grow their businesses while reducing their compliance risk is something we do well,” said Dominic Iannitti, president and CEO of DocMagic. “We’re very pleased to introduce our existing customers to New Penn Financial as an investor for their loans and look forward to providing our services to their existing correspondents, including our secure eSign, electronic document technology and industry-leading legal compliance services.”

As part of the relationship, DocMagic will provide New Penn Financial’s investor initial disclosure packages with DocMagic’s secure eSign service.

“The majority of our correspondents already use DocMagic, so it was a natural decision to have them maintain our investor docs. Their ability to keep our documents correct and help our third party originators stay current and compliant is well proven,” said Brian Simon, COO of New Penn. “With the amount and velocity of compliance changes occurring in our industry, now more than ever we needed a partner who could keep pace with our growing institution and ensure full compliance in a fast-changing regulatory landscape. DocMagic exceeds those expectations and criteria. We’re proud to be working with them.”

As featured in National Mortgage Professional, August 2014