ALTA Supporting Documents
Companies currently offering remote online notarizations (RON) expect these types of closings to increase in 2022, according to ALTA’s latest 2022 Digital Closing Survey.
The survey of 390 title professionals showed that 62% of companies offering RON believe this offering will increase over the next year, while a third reported they don’t anticipate any change.
Meanwhile, according to the 2022 survey, the number of companies offering RON decreased to 30% in 2021 compared to 35% who indicated their company offered RON in 2020. Prior to the health crisis, a 2019 survey showed that 14% of companies offered digital closings three years ago.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the title and settlement professionals responded during historic mortgage origination volume to meet customer needs and deliver digital closings to help keep everyone as safe as possible,” said Diane Tomb, ALTA’s chief executive officer. “The desire for digital closings remains, and despite the drop in companies offering RON in 2021 from 2020, the percentage of transactions completed using this closing option held steady at 5%. This is a service industry, and our members will always provide the customers’ preferred closing method, whether it is online, in person or hybrid in some fashion.”
The survey showed that 77% surveyed believe requests from lenders, real estate agents and consumers to use RON would speed up adoption. Nearly half of title companies offering RON actively market it to customers, but it is not viewed as a competitive issue by those not offering the option. Companies are using various channels to market RON capabilities, including social media, website, direct emails, print ads and verbal communication to customers and clients.
Regarding efficiencies and cost savings, survey results show responses remains fairly split as the industry continues to adopt and get more familiar with the technology.
Based on your experience in implementing RON, do you agree or disagree with the following statements?
Currently, 42 states have enacted laws allowing permanent access to remote online notarization. The ALTA-supported Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote and Electronic (SECURE) Notarization Act (H.R. 3962) was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year. A bipartisan companion bill has been introduced in the Senate. The bill would permit immediate nationwide use of RON, create national minimum standards for its use and provide certainty for the interstate recognition of RON.
Additional survey highlights:
Survey results show that 75% of residential transactions closed via RON were for cash and seller-side only deals. This percentage was nearly the same as results from the 2021 survey.
Of companies that offer RON, 64% utilize one RON platform. This is a significant change as more than 50% in the 2021 survey indicated they used two or more vendors. The results indicate that companies are identifying preferred RON platforms to work with.
65% of customers have a positive perception of RON closings. This is up from 60% of customers who had a positive perception of RON closings the prior year.
78% of those surveyed said they are training a team of experts versus training their entire staff to support RON closings. This is up from the 2021 survey, where 64% indicated they trained a team of experts.
Also highlighting that companies are focusing on having RON experts on staff, the survey showed that companies employ fewer RON notaries. 87% of companies that offer RON have one to five RON notaries on staff, compared to 59% in 2020. Conversely, this year’s survey showed that only 4% of respondents employ more than 25 RON notaries. This compared to 12% that had more than 25 notaries who could perform RON on staff in 2020.
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