“High-Touch” Servicer Pushes E-Doc Loan Modifications

Dallas-based special servicer Acqura Loan Services said Thursday that it has implemented a solution for managing the loan modification process online, in an effort to streamline the loss mitigation process and ease the process for usually shell-shocked borrowers. The company said in a statement that it is using SigniaDoc’s smart-doc technology to prepare and present the e-mods to borrowers with loans that it services for investors and for its own fund. Borrowers are invited to view their loan-modification documents online at a secure portion of Acqura’s website and review them on a real-time basis with a representative from Acqura’s Home Owner Solutions Center. If they agree with the modification, the borrowers can immediately e-sign the documents online in a secure environment. Once the e-mod has been executed, it is electronically delivered to the investor’s custodian and then filed in an e-Vault. A growing number of investors will now accept e-signed mods, and federal and state courts have also recognized the validity of e-signed documents for loan modifications, the company said. “As a special servicer, some of our biggest challenges are getting and staying in contact with borrowers and getting them to act before it is too late,” said David Vida, president of servicing at Acqura. “E-mods dramatically reduce the loan modification timeline: We can present the mod to the borrower in a single call, review it with them step by step online and then get them to execute it on the spot. This eliminates mailings, Fed-Exing and return delivery delays.” Vida said that early results suggest so far that the online process helps overcome borrower inertia: more than half of all borrowers approve the mod the same day, he said, and nearly 80 percent do it within two days. “We picked SigniaDocs as our partner because they are a leader in the e-doc space. Their click-to-sign approach works extremely well for loan mods, since most of these agreements, unlike mortgages, do not have to be recorded,” Vida said. That said, SigniaDocs president Tim Anderson said that his company also offers eNotary functionality for investors preferring recordation of relevant agreement. “Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FDIC and many other servicers have all endorsed e-mods,” Anderson said. “As the demand for blanket modifications grows, we expect that more resource and time-constrained servicers will follow Acqura’s lead and offer e-mods to their borrowers.” Write to Paul Jackson at [email protected].