Chicago Title Insurance Co., part of the Fidelity National Financial family of title companies, successfully closed an “e-Note” mortgage on July 23, 2004, during a standard settlement conference in Lombard, Ill. The borrower, Audrey Edmiston, of Bolingbrook, Ill., affixed her e-signature to each page of the electronic closing package, which was also signed electronically by the notary who witnessed the transaction.
Chicago Title was part of a multiparty initiative that included mortgage lender 1st Advantage Mortgage and technology provider Document Processing Systems (DPS). When the loan closed, it was immediately registered on MERS, an electronic loan registry created by the real estate finance industry to maintain easy-to-access records on loan ownership.
“We believe electronic mortgages will create significant cost savings and efficiencies for everyone in the mortgage chain,” said Pat Weinstein, regional manager for Chicago Title. “Stacks of paper are eliminated, there are no missing documents or signatures to track down, and the closing process can occur in about half the time of paper closings,” she said.
Chicago Title is projecting a growing demand for the electronic mortgage closing process. “I am confident that e-Note mortgages will eventually become just the normal way we all do business,” Weinstein said.
Chicago Title Insurance Co. provides settlement and title insurance services nationwide, and is part of Fidelity National Financial, a Fortune 500 corporation and provider of products and service solutions to financial institutions and the real estate industry.
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