Data analytics giant Black Knight and digital mortgage vendor platform Stavvy are the latest companies to officially receive the Remote Online Notarization (RON) compliance certification through the Mortgage Industry Standard Maintenance Organization (MISMO). Their initiation marks the ninth and 10th companies to receive the specialized certification in the program’s first year.
Originally introduced in April 2020, the MISMO RON compliance certification was designed to assure RON tech providers meet a universal set of standards. Credential analysis, borrower identification, capturing and maintaining a recording of the notary process electronically, audio and video requirements, record storage and audit trails all fall under MISMO’s measurable requirements.
“Since announcing the MISMO RON certification program last April, we’ve seen significant interest from companies that want to demonstrate that their technology solutions meet the common set of industry standards needed to achieve this designation,” said Seth Appleton, president of MISMO. “This offers mortgage industry participants a level of assurance that their MISMO RON-certified provider has adopted industry best practices. Congratulations to Black Knight and Stavvy.”
States began taking it upon themselves to procure their own policies for RON after what was promised to be a blanket policy in the SECURE Notarization Act failed to make any headway in Congress following its introduction in March, 2020.
And borrowers liked the tech. A November study from ClosingCorp found 82% of these borrowers said they preferred eSigning documents before closing and more than two-thirds of borrowers said that in the future they would prefer remote closings over in-person.
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By the end of the year, records for eNotes were shattered, with data showing that 462,671 eNotes were registered on the MERS eRegistry in 2020, compared to 127,178 eNotes in 2019 – a 366% increase year-over-year.
In August, Black Knight acquired DocVerify in an effort of boost its e-notarization abilities in its goal of “digitizing the entirety of the real estate and mortgage continuum.” At the time of the acquisition, Black Knight said it planned to eventually offer a 100% digital closing.
“When the world returns to ‘normal,’ people are still going to want the convenience of doing certain transactions remotely due to busy schedules,” said Rich Gagliano, president of origination technologies for Black Knight. “RON is the way to enhance current processes, improve operational efficiency and deliver a better customer experience.”
In a November release from Stavvy, the company revealed its remote ink-signed (RIN) tech has been utilized in areas where remote online notarization (RON) has yet to be passed. The startup was originally formed in 2018 when co-founders Kosta Ligris and Josh Feinblum discussed the idea of building technology to simplify the closing process.
Prior to Black Knight and Stavvy’s inclusion, eNotaryLog received RON compliance certification on May 27, followed by Notarize in July. The third company granted the compliance designation was digital signature servicer Signix, followed by Pavaso on Aug. 24. Heracles Holding, Nexsys and Snapdocs followed suit, with digital notary platform NotaryCam achieving RON compliance most recently in November.
According to MISMO, Docutech, Mortgage Connect, NotaryLive and OneNotary are all currently in progress of receiving the certification.
