The 30-minute mortgage closing
Truliant FCU completed an end-to-end electronic mortgage closing in March 2020 and became the first credit union to transfer an eNote to the FHLB in Atlanta in 2021. Other credit unions can follow suit.
Even before the pandemic, traditional mortgage closings were too often inconvenient for members and inefficient for credit unions. That’s why when Beth Eller joined Truliant Federal Credit Union ($3.5B, Winston Salem, NC) in the fall of 2019 as the first vice president of Truliant mortgage services, she made it a top priority to help the cooperative reach of its goal of becoming the first credit union in the state of North Carolina to conduct an end-to-end eClosing.
Thanks to some early prep work, Truliant achieved its goal in just four months and completed its first eClosing in March 2020, drastically reducing the typical six to nine months new projects typically require for implementation.
Similar to a Zoom meeting, in an eClosing the member, the lender, an attorney, and an eNotary all dial into the conference call and appear on screen with the closing documents. North Carolina uses in-person electronic notary (IPEN), which means the notary meets the borrower to sign the note and deed of trust in person. The borrower inscribes an electronic signature on a fully encrypted biometric pad. The borrower signs only the two required notarial documents at the closing itself, which cuts down the average time from nearly two hours to just 30 minutes.