MISMO Approves New Remote Online Notarization Standards
July 30, 2019
MISMO recently released its remote online notarization (RON) standards, which include an update to the draft standards issued earlier this year. The RON standards allow the use of audio-visual communication devices to notarize documents in a virtual online environment.
MISMO’s RON standards were updated to include language to preclude the storage of personally identifiable information. With this revision, the RON standards are being released for a public comment period ending Aug. 12. If no substantive comments are received during this comment period, the standards will be moved to Candidate Recommendation status. Candidate Recommendation status means the RON standards have been thoroughly reviewed by a wide range of organizations and industry participants, and are ready for broad use across the entire residential mortgage industry.
"With states across the country enacting remote online notarization laws, MISMO's standards will support greater consistency as the volume of remote online notarial transactions increases," said Eddie Oddo, vice president of corporate business solutions at First American Title Insurance Company, and co-chair of MISMO's Remote Online Notarization Workgroup. "We're excited about this next stage in the standards process and look forward to seeing lenders, title companies, software vendors and notaries leverage RON standards to offer borrowers a more secure and efficient closing process."
MISMO's RON standards were created to promote consistency across mortgage industry practices and state regulations. In the interest of furthering adoption of RON and to encourage consistency in related state regulation, MISMO will make its standards available for free to the public and will not require a license fee to use them.
The standards include credential analysis, borrower identification, capturing and maintaining a recording of the notary process electronically, audio and video requirements, record storage and audit trails.
MISMO's RON standards support model legislation that was developed by ALTA and the Mortgage Bankers Association. Multiple U.S. states are now using this model legislation to enact RON laws in their jurisdictions. Furthermore, some states that enacted RON legislation have already utilized draft versions of the MISMO RON standards to implement their state law.
Want to learn more about RON and digital closings? Register for the ALTA & MBA Digital Closing & eMortgage Boot Camp, which will be held Dec. 11-12 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Contact ALTA at 202-296-3671 or [email protected].