The National Mortgage Settlement

The recent $25 billion National Mortgage Settlement is likely to have a significant impact on the entire mortgage industry as well as law firms, document processing companies and notaries. For companies, the terms target the kinds of policies and practices that created the "robo-signing" assembly lines. For notaries and there supervisors, the settlement terms focus on the need to comply with state notary laws and obtain adequate training to carry out there duties. In October 2010, a coalition of state attorneys general and federal agencies launched an investigation of the financial industry following revelations the "robo-signing" affidavits were being used in foreclosure proceedings around the country. In february, five major banks reached an agreement with state and federal officials not only to pay $25 billion in relief to homeowners who were improperly foreclosed on but also to change the way they deal with mortgage documents. The terms of the settlement require banks to provide state-specific training for all empolyees who regularly prepare or execute forecloser-related documents. The banks also are required to keep records of all forclosure-related notarizations performed on there behalf. Banks who violate the reform terms can face stiff penalties (up to $5 million for repeat offenders) In the end this means we must not ignore notarial laws. Signers must personally appear before the notary with proper identification and all notarizations must adhere to state laws. Lisa Scanlon, CSA www.scanlonsigningservices.com 941-447-7130

Feds push for E-Records

One of the biggest challenges to the widespread use of electronic notarizations is the slow pace of government agencies adopting digital recordkeeping technologies.But that may soon change as the federal goverment speeds up its plan to use e-records to replace the mountains of papers. The Obama Administration recently issued a memo directing federal agencies to start using electronic technologies to replace paper options. They must submit a plan outlining there efforts to adopt digital recordkeeping technologies. As more agencies embrace electronic recording and documents, the closer we are to electronic notarizations.

More counties utilizing electronic recording.

The number of counties capable of recording documents electronically is growing across the Unitied States. In the past five years these numbers have tripled. Electronically recording documents helps speed up the recording process and is more accurate and secure. This also brings us closer to the growth and adoption of electronic notarization. The benefits of E-Recording include an improvement in data quality, a reduction in turn around time for processing documents, and a significant savings when compared to the manual process. It is beneficial to companies that process a high volume of documentation, such as title companies, banks, law firms and helps pave the way for eNotarization.