Recent Web seminars and e-Radio programs have provided multiple platforms for Mortgage Cadence executives to discuss the future of lending. Mortgage Cadence, Inc., a leading provider of enterprise lending solutions (ELS) for the mortgage industry, and its executives have taken their knowledge and expertise about e-Mortgages to the public by branching out through multiple industry forums.

Many of the challenges regarding e-Mortgage adoption stem from fear of change and the work required to make adjustments personally, technologically, and business process-wise. Interested in debunking popular myths and clearing the air of misconceptions, Mortgage Cadence used these outlets to educate the financial industry on the true definition of an e-Mortgage. Although the concept of an e-Mortgage is a purely electronic mortgage without the paper trail that today's lenders still operate with, it is still years away according to many. One reason for this opinion is that many lenders believe that this technological improvement is too expensive and too extensive to implement into their systems. While the short term outlook of this may be true, the long term advantages should certainly outweigh those.

Within the last few years, the concept of e-Mortgages has become a hot subject in the mortgage industry. However, what exactly constitutes an e-Mortgage widely varies from vendor to vendor and from lender to lender.

During October Research's Real Estate Technology News' e-Radio session, "Transitioning to e-Mortgages", Kim Karouni, executive vice president of Mortgage Cadence, joined other experts of the industry; Tom Gosner, founder of DocuSign, Harry Gardner, senior director of industry technology for MBA and vice president of e-Mortgages for MISMO, and Ann Epstein, offering director with Freddie Mac; to discuss the evolution of e-Mortgage technology and where it is headed. Together the panel agreed that the electronic mortgage is still the wave of the future, how far off into the future is really up to lenders to determine, and in order for the industry to move forward, there needs to acceptance across the board.

As a technology vendor in the financial services industry, Karouni, on behalf of Mortgage Cadence, spoke to the industry's acceptance of e-Mortgages. Karouni said that lenders are "looking for ways to build efficiencies and lower their costs," but in order to do so, they need vendors and investors that will help support their initiatives. She continued by saying that there are "a lot of lenders looking seriously at e-Disclosures because that's something they can manage on their own with their own technology. So that's a less intrusive way of getting started down the path of e-Mortgage. And that is becoming more and more dominant."

However, a few lenders marching toward the path of e-Mortgages doesn't mean there's already industry-wide acceptance. "I would agree that as Wall Street firms and other non-conforming investors adopt and accept e-Mortgages that that's going to accelerate the transition of lenders starting to do e-Mortgages," Karouni said. "But we are seeing some acceleration in the adoption of e-Mortgages and considering the fact that it does take time and effort to implement technology, I would highly recommend that closing agents start that process today so they are ready. When it becomes widely accepted and becomes the standard, that's not the time to be attempting to come up to speed from a technology perspective."

Following on the heels of October Research's e-Radio session in December, Mortgage Cadence launched the Web seminar, "Electronic Document Management and Imaging – the Paper Solution", addressing the needed technology to achieve an e-Mortgage and to gain a competitive advantage. The Web seminar agreed with the panelists of October Research's e-Radio in that e-Mortgages are still to come but that the interim is full of technology advances that cannot be overlooked.

Many industry reports from sources like the MBA and Tower Group have cited the increased interest in and investigation of imaging solutions. The MISMO "eMortgage Guide" also makes mention of imaging as part of the standard origination process. Mortgage Cadence takes imaging to the next level by introducing electronic document management in its process. Imaging, as defined today, merely deals with the electronic storage and retrieval of paper-based documents. While lenders can see some increases in efficiency from this capability, there is more that can be done with current technology. In order for lenders to achieve more benefit and move closer toward e-Mortgages, they need to adopt the notion of Electronic Document Management (EDM) which incorporates the storage and retrieval of electronic documents (PDF's, Word documents, XML documents, e-mails, etc.), as well as paper documents. Additionally, EDM features include document recognition, OCR (optical character recognition) and data extraction, data comparison, document annotation, and revision control capabilities.

Several benefits of imaging and EDM are that the technologies eliminate costs associated with manually handling paper, improve operational efficiencies, provide better access of information to employees and customer, and help in the preparation for e-Mortgages. Mortgage Cadence believes that lenders should be looking at EDM technology today, in order to stay ahead tomorrow. While many in the industry consider e-Mortgage technology premature, Mortgage Cadence believes that the next generation is here.


About Mortgage Cadence
Mortgage Cadence supplies mortgage lending platforms that enable companies to focus on profitability and superior service. Comprised of comprehensive end-to-end loan origination software at its core, a business rule management system (BRMS), workflow engine, product and pricing functionality, automated underwriting, imaging/electronic document management and document preparation services, the system gives companies the flexibility to readily adapt to industry changes and easily capitalize on new business opportunities. Built on an ever-evolving, SOA-based architecture, consisting of functionality to innovate the mortgage process, and an eye toward the eventual realization of e-Mortgages, Mortgage Cadence provides the last lending platform a company will ever need. To learn more, please visit us on the Web at http://www.mortgagecadence.com.