Content area
The eMortgage Alliance, a loose vendor consortium originally formed 2 years ago by DocuTech Corp (Idaho Falls, ID) to evangelize end-to-end electronic mortgage transactions, has elected a new governance board and taken steps to unify members more tightly and pursue a more focused mission. The restructuring began in April 2004 when Ty Jenkins, CEO and founder of DocuTech Corp, contacted alliance members and apprised Mortgage Bankers Association vp of industry technology, Gabe Minton, that he wanted the eMortgage Alliance to support industry adoption of 2 core standards in the development of all-electronic mortgage transactions: 1. those set by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, and 2. those used to create secure, manageable, archivable, retrievable and transferable documents.
photo, Dave Williamson
The eMortgage Alliance, a loose vendor consortium originally formed two years ago by DocuTech Corp. here to evangelize end-to- end electronic mortgage transactions, has elected a new governance board and taken steps to unify members more tightly and pursue a more focused mission.
The restructuring began in April 2004, when Ty Jenkins, chief executive officer and founder of DocuTech Corp., contacted the existing alliance members and apprised Mortgage Bankers Association's vice president of industry technology, Gabe Minton, that he wanted the eMortgage Alliance to support industry adoption of two core standards in the development of all-electronic mortgage transactions: those set by the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization and those used to create secure, manageable, achivable, retrievable and transferable documents.
"My concern was that the industry not adopt [electronic] mortgages one piece at a time," Mr. Jenkins told National Mortgage News.
"Certain lenders will be inclined to pursue their own strategies rather than a common industry standard," said the DocuTech executive.
"We want them to adopt the whole thing, to be truly MISMO compliant and SMART Doc compliant, in order for the industry to realize the greatest benefits and efficiencies," said Mr. Jenkins.
Dave Williamson, senior vice president of technology and strategic initiatives for The Performance Group, Concord, N.H., has been elected chairman.
Tom Litke, executive vice president of sales and marketing, Wellfound Technology, Atlanta, is the new vice-chairman and Sue Cordova, senior business analyst, Framework Inc., Tarrytown, N.Y., is secretary and treasurer.
"David is in the process of drafting up the guideline to build the structure of the e-Mortgage Alliance," the DocuTech executive said.
Mr. Williamson, mortgage banking veteran who has been active in the industry for 20 years and is based in Dallas, formerly headed technology development for Fiserv's Unifi division.
He said his first objectives will be to add alliance members and create an industrywide forum for the electronic mortgage to be discussed and debated.
"The EMA is committed to providing the conceptual understanding that all participants in the mortgage process need to make investment decisions and practical demonstrations of technology that is working today," said The Performance Group executive.
Mr. Litke cited reduction of costly paper process as the chief electronic mortgage benefit.
The Wellfound Technology executive said paper "cuts deeply into profits at a time when reduced originations are tightening bottom lines."
Besides DocuTech, Framework, WellFound and The Performance Group, the eMortgage Alliance at press time last week included the Lee, Mass.-baed Wave eSign Systems; the Portland, Ore.-based SwiftView; the Logan, Utah-based Rekon Technologies and the Houston, Texas- based Encomia.
Links to the individual companies can be found on the eMortgage Alliance website (emortgagealliance.us).
Mr. Jenkins also said that on June 1 of this year DocuTech Corp. will launch a Lender Advocate website.
The website is a compliance resource for the mortgage industry and a catalyst to enable more proactive involvement by mortgage professionals in the lawmaking process, he said.
"The Lender Advocate website will be a place where mortgage industry members involved in compliance can get real-time information and have their voices heard," said the DocuTech executive.
"Our in-house legal counsel continuously researches the laws and enters the latest developments on pending legislation into the database," said Mr. Jenkins.
The DocuTech executive said lenders can go to the website and find the latest developments in anti-predatory lending legislation and licensing issues for a particular state. "You can see the text of a proposed bill along with the commentary of our in-house counsel, Ron Swafford, then use the site to register your opinion on that bill," said Mr. Jenkins.
The DocuTech executive said Mr. Swafford will supply state officials with the tallied results.
Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http:// www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com @
(Copyright c 2004 Thomson Media. All Rights Reserved.)