After two years of testing, Mountain America Credit Union in Salt Lake City is preparing to launch a paperless closing program for mortgages.
In the last year of testing, the $2.7 billion-asset credit union has partnered with three title companies to work out any kinks in the electronic closing program. Mountain America has had about 150 e-closings.
Jeanie Olsen, Mountain America's vice president of mortgage services, said that because the credit union's more than 300,000 members can apply for a home loan or refinance online, it was only natural to engineer a way for them to close the process digitally.
Mountain America has also partnered with Signia Docs, a mortgage e-services firm that enables the credit union to then sell its loans directly to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Olsen said that most members have embraced the "green" initiative, but methods are still in place for those who want to do things the old-fashioned way.
Embracing new technologies likely won't cause a change in pricing or come at any additional cost to members, Olsen said. The cost to Mountain America is slightly higher for the e-closing, "but I think it balances out, because we don't have all of the paper expenses and the postage. Plus, there are a lot fewer loss problems, and we don't have to allow time for delivery. So there are definitely some benefits to us that we think we can absorb the costs of going paperless."
