Streamline and Secure a Competitive Position with CSC’s eRecording Solution

Disclaimer: Please be advised that this recorded webinar has been edited from its original format, which may have included a product demo. To set up a live demo or to request more information, please complete the form to the right. Or if you are currently not on CSC Global, there is a link to the website in the description of this video. Thank you.

Caitlin: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar, "Streamline and Secure a Competitive Position with CSC's eRecording Solution." My name is Caitlin Alaburda, and I will be your moderator.

Joining us today are Musa Khan and Andrew Singleton. Musa is a national account manager for the Electronic Document Recording eRecording Division of CSC based out of Wilmington, Delaware. He's been with CSC for more than five years and is dedicated to CSC's eRecording program. And his daily workflow includes onboarding submitters to use CSC's eRecording digital tools and new client acquisition. Andy is a sales engineer in the Real Estate Services Group at CSC. Since joining CSC in 2015, Andrew has held several roles in the Real Estate Group, including sales representative and team leader, where he provided onboarding and service delivery for submitters using ePrepare, CSC's eRecording solution to reduce risk, document rejection, and processing time across documents' life cycle.

And with that I'd like to welcome Andy and Musa.

Andy: Thank you, Caitlin, and thank you to everyone that joined us today for our webinar. Musa and I are both excited to share some information with the audience. And before we get into all things eRecording, just a little bit about CSC for those of you unfamiliar with us. For more than 120 years, CSC has been the partner of choice for companies around the globe, trusted to handle everything from incorporating a company through maintaining compliance to corporate transaction work, protecting digital assets from the threats on the online world, and everything in between. We offer the solutions and technology that keep businesses running in the background, allowing clients to focus on the important work of growing their business.

I would like to show you on this screen here is our robust menu of service offerings. Some of you on the call today are already using us for one or two of these services and are taking advantage of CSC to handle many of your compliance filings. What you're seeing here is a comprehensive list of services that CSC offers, with real estate recording and searching being just one option from the services that we provide.

Musa: Thanks, Andy, and once again welcome to all our audience and viewers. Just to quickly go over the agenda, we will be discussing adoption and growth of eRecording, various lien document types, basics and benefits of eRecording as a technology and service, evolution of eRecording, any notable county activations, any complementary services that we offer as part of our eRecording package, product demonstration, and then at the end there will be time for Q&A.

Andy: Thanks, Musa. So when I started in 2015, there was less than 1,000 counties throughout the country that eRecorded. Now we're approaching 2,500 counties throughout the country. That encompasses over 90% of the U.S. population. So many of the jurisdictions have adopted eRecording and has enacted legislation to allow for the eRecording of documents.

CSC was the first to eRecord way back in 2002, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Amish Country. When it comes to doc types, early on it was just real estate or mortgage-related documents that were eRecorded. And over the years, it's expanded to all different types of documents, from the mortgage and loan servicing side to title and settlement to very unique industries that now have the ability to eRecord their documents. Vermont remains the last county to adopt legislation for, or I'm sorry the last state to allow for eRecording.

We onboard roughly 150 to 200 counties every year to bring on to adopt eRecording. That number spiked quite heavily coming out of the pandemic, and a lot of the counties that didn't have eRecording in place had to come up with a resolution for the non-traditional recording method. And here lately, the annual document recordings has confirmed to us the growth of eRecording and adoption across all markets.

Musa: As we see on our screen, there's multiple lien document types that companies can record. Just to name a few, mortgages and deeds of trust, mechanic and construction liens. There's medical liens, HOA liens, timeshare liens, tax liens, O&G and mineral liens, solar panel liens, utility liens, assignments, and releases. I believe this paints a picture that there's multiple types of liens that submitters are able to eRecord using our system, and it goes to show how broad the application of the eRecording technology is. It covers multiple industries, not just for real estate. But for example, in Texas and Oklahoma, the oil industry and the solar industry, and on the coasts, we would say predominantly timeshare liens in states like Florida.

An important thing, of course, to notice is that during the COVID pandemic era, various government agencies at the federal and state level suspended all collection efforts across a lot of these industries. And ever since, we've seen that regulations of that nature have been backtracked and lifted, and as a result we're seeing a significant uptick in a variety of liens being recorded.

Andy: All right. On this slide, we're going to discuss the basics and benefits of eRecording. For those of you that may be unfamiliar with eRecording, it first and foremost, from a technology standpoint, it's through a secured web-based application. The immediate delivery of eRecording, right? It's instantaneous. The moment that you submit your document, it lands to the to the respective county's recording queue, and that's where the human element comes into play, where their clerks are reviewing those documents and ultimately processing them accordingly.

From a security aspect, the original, wet signed document remains in your possession the entire time. The county is working off a PDF image of that original. So once it's been recorded, you receive the recorded instrument immediately right back to you. If it gets rejected for any reason, you also receive that rejected notice and rejected document back to you immediately so you can make any corrections and get it prepared for resubmission.

On the billing aspect, that's another key component of eRecording. CSC advances any and all juris fees and taxes at the time of recordation, and then we reconcile the next business day with our submitters.

So there's a number benefits to it. Those are just a handful of the primary benefits to eRecording as well as the cost effectiveness. Many times it's cheaper, quite frankly, to eRecord than it is through traditional delivery methods.

Musa: All right. Now talking about the basics and benefits of eRecording from a technological perspective, in today's fast-paced environment and the level of competitiveness we have, the reliability of a system is highly imperative, something that's available to you 24/7. And our focus here at CSC is to strive to provide that 24/7 uptime and access for all the applications and services that we offer to all our customers as an organization.

Our eRecording platform provides very simple and effective document image enhancement tools. There may be certain eventualities, for example, if your printer acts up or your scanner is acting up and everything is outside the county's prescribed margin lines in terms of your image, we have tools that act as a safety net around those eventualities to make sure that there is adherence of the image that you're going to record to county standards, which also, of course, improves the efficiency and reduces rejections.

Now as an organization, we make sure that our products are always at the helm of the latest technology, and product enhancements, of course, is a huge part of that. And we make sure that regular feature enhancements are made within our system, our eRecording platform. A very noticeable and notable feature that was added to our system is our document type recognition feature, which basically, in a nutshell, allows our submitters to have the document type automatically selected once you upload the image into the system, which again translates into less clicks and more efficiency. And, of course, this is part of an ongoing effort to make sure that the user experience is wholesome, more intuitive, and the whole system is easy to use as well.

We also offer a real-time response feature, which is also referred to as our live chat feature available within the system. So all of our customers have the ability to get their questions answered real time from our award-winning support team. And then, of course, this ensures that everything is done in a timely fashion.

Now looking at Level 2 eRecording and Level 3 eRecording, we're just going to do a 30,000-foot overview of these two, just to make sure that all of our viewers are aware of what these are. Level 2 eRecording is also referred to as our mainstream eRecording service, which means you will have the ability to scan and upload the images say in PDF or TIFF formats into our web-based system. The system has all the requirements built into it for all document types. Once the document is uploaded into the system, the system will prompt you to input any data that needs to be there in terms of indexing, or if there's any supporting documentation that's required. Once everything looks good and the system shows that all the requirements have been fulfilled, you will have the ability to immediately transmit that package to the county directly for recordation without you having to cut any checks.

Level 3 eRecording is just a tad bit different. This basically is for our lien release processing and preparing assignments, being predominantly used by our lending clients, mortgage companies, banks, credit unions. Our customers have the ability to enter the data to generate the lien release document or an assignment, both again for commercial and non-commercial templates. They have the ability to sign and notarized documents digitally and then directly transmit the document over to the county for recordation. There are situations where some counties do not accept electronic recording currently. In that case, our submitters will have the ability to prepare the template within our system and then print it, thereby allowing them the opportunity to hand sign and hand notarize the document or physically do all of that work, and then either mail the document out or hand deliver it. And, of course, these templates again I do want mention here are for all 50 states, approximately 3,600 or s jurisdictions, predominantly again for lien releasing and assignments.

Andy: And if I can add real quick, Musa, on the technology component of it, as the industry evolves and the technology around the industry evolves, CSC evolves with it, right? CSC is agile. We remain consistent with the industry standards. Nowadays all the talk is AI, and we're right there. We're evolving with the industry. So a lot of new enhancements that we're excited to come out with in the near future, kind of centered around that AI component.

On this slide ,we're going to discuss the security component and aspect of eRecording. First and foremost, CSC is trusted by 90% of the Fortune 500 companies, and 8 of the 10 largest banks in the United States use us for our eRecording services. We're SOC 2 compliant. Our SOC 2 assessments are conducted annually by third-party auditing firms. All applications and data are maintained on CSC servers. Networks and data storage systems are located within an ISO certified and SOC audited colocation hosting facility. Third-party agencies conduct regularly aggressive penetration tests on all CSC applications to identify vulnerabilities and verify successful remediation. And lastly, CSC has well-tested business continuity and disaster recovery processes in place.

Musa: All right. So talking about the basics and benefits of eRecording from an implementation and an expertise standpoint, having newer counties added to our network, of course, directly translates into how our customers are able to more and more electronically submit their documents instead of physically submitting them. Our eRecording network is consistently growing with newly activated counties added every week, and of course this provides all our submitters access to be able to eRecord them without any special approval or request. All they have to do is just log in, select the jurisdiction they want to submit their document in, and they should easily be able to do so.

We do also offer a very robust training program, which means any new customers, once they get onboarded, they receive a welcome email. They have the ability to schedule trainings through our, of course, Customer Support team members. Or they also have the ability to request one-on-one training sessions as well. Again, this can be with the account manager or with the Training Department. Trainings, of course, are available ongoing, whether it's for new submitters or some of our seasoned clients.

We do also offer custom integrations for some of our larger submitters via API, which means this allows them the ability to have a lot of efficiencies added. A lot of the document submission process, again, is automated to make sure that there's less clicks, less work for the submitter and more efficiency added to their document recording process.

Andy: Yeah, Musa, if I can interject real quick on the custom integration component. The title and settlement world, they have the various title software, most of which we're integrated with. But to expand upon what you said, as far as the larger submitters and, look, we know that no two are alike. Everyone has their own unique requirements and setups. And as I alluded to before in an earlier slide, the word "agile" comes to play, and that's CSC. We have that ability to cater, if you will, our eRecording platform with whatever you may have.

We hear the term "backlog" a lot a lot, right? "I have a backlog of liens or releases I need to get recorded." We have the ability to customize integrations to better make your processes more efficient. We have that ability to do so.

Musa: Fantastic. I think this is definitely some valuable information for all our participants, Andy.

Looking at submitter support and county support, I believe part of a successful business model is to have a very robust support department. Now there's couple of components to our system where we provide a platform to our customers for them to be able to submit documents directly to the counties, and of course we also have the ability to plug in with the counties as well. So at a certain level, we have to provide support with them as well or to them as well. So we made sure that there was no effort spared to make sure that one person or one team does not wear multiple hats. We have dedicated teams for our submitter support and dedicated teams for our county support as well.

Andy: Okay, on this slide we're going to talk about the evolution of eRecording, the unique market needs. eRecording has evolved to accommodate those unique market needs and the needs of the specific markets. For example, in Colorado, we developed a service that allows for mortgage servicers to look up the original deeds of trust before recording the release, which is a requirement in the state of Colorado. Tennessee, for example, when eRecording, they require a certificate of authenticity to be accompanied with the document. Well, we've developed a method and a process for that within our ePrepare system.

When it comes to the transfer taxes and the conveyance taxes, we've connected with the various offices in states like Washington and Ohio to allow for when it comes to deeds to be recorded, it allows for those respective reconveyance and transfer taxes to be paid at the appropriate state-level office before the deed is routed to the county to be recorded. So the point being is that eRecording isn't just an out-of-the box process. There's many different jurisdictions involved that have different requirements, and there, again, I'll go back to that word "agile." CSC remains agile in catering our services and our technology to the respective jurisdictions and what their processes and requirements are.

Musa: As Andy had alluded to before, that over 90% of the U.S. population lives in areas or counties where eRecording is active, CSC currently has nearly 2,400 counties in our network. Some of the notable counties that we added this year to our network were Cuyahoga Kahoka County, Ohio, population 1.2 million, Clark, Indiana 111,000 people residing in that county, Warwick and Newport, Rhode Island, and Somerset, Pennsylvania some of the notable ones. And as you all could see in the map on the right side, 76% to 100% of the population reside within an eRecording county. And as we could see on the map, a majority of the states are colored coded with this teal color, which definitely signifies the application of eRecording and how wide it is.

All right. Let's look at some of the comprehensive digital solutions that CSC offers as part of our real estate eRecording package. One thing to note is that it's extremely important for any organization that while they're selecting a vendor, whether the vendor has any additional services that they can assist with and making the process more easier and much more fluid. And keeping that in focus and in our vision, CSC has, I would say, a toolbox of a whole list of services that we offer, starting with our full-service lien release process, our borrower notification letter service, our custom email notifications feature, property search services, our eTrustee services, and also our fee calculator. Andy and I are going to be talking a little bit about all of these features in the next few slides.

Andy: Okay. Here we're going to discuss our full-service lien release processes that we have in place. So within our application called ePrepare, a submitter can place an order for CSC to prepare and record the respective satisfactions or releases, lien releases. You have the ability to create an order either with the original document, or if you have data items, we can we can create an order through that method. If you do not have the original security instrument, the deed of trust or mortgage, we have the ability to search for those respective documents and information. So the nice thing with this service that we provide is that it's available for all jurisdictions, even those that don't accept eRecording. And because of that or with that, not only do we have our eRecording system, but we also have a team, a paper recording team that I'll speak to later on, based out of Tallahassee, Florida, and that provides the ability for you to record your releases through a full-service mechanism, whether it be eRecording or a paper-only jurisdiction.

In all aspects, CSC advances all the jurisdictional fees and such. And then we there, again, reconcile the next day with our submitters through a number of billing methods.

And the nice thing with that, for those that are non-eRecordable counties, once our team records the documents on your behalf, you'll immediately have access to the recorded documents within your established eRecording account. So immediate access to the recorded instruments once they're recorded, no matter if it's eRecorded or through our paper services.

Musa: Here's a quick example of our borrower notification letter feature, popularly known as the BNL letter. Our system, ePrepare will automatically prepare and mail out to the borrower a notification from you, which, of course, will save the submitter or our customer a ton of time, of course which definitely can be dedicated to other tasks. Just to give a 30,000-foot overview, once a package is created through our system, the submitter has the ability to select the release document type. Whether it's a commercial or a residential release, they will have the ability to enter the data for each recipient, and afterwards a customized letter is prepared and a copy of the recorded document is sent to the customer I believe in a neatly prepared letter and an envelope. Now this meets all internal compliance and statutory requirements.

And the application, I think I must mention here, the application of this feature is primarily for our release or satisfaction of mortgages, but it also has capabilities beyond the mortgage lending.

Andy: And I'll add something real quick, Musa. We accomplish this ultimately by you, the client providing us with an example or a template of what you want this BNL to look like from an appearance standpoint. So ultimately, once it's delivered to your client, it portrays and looks as if it's coming from you, based upon that template or sample that you would have provided us and ultimately we would have embedded into your ePrepare account.

Musa: Another one of our features is the custom email notifications feature. So this is predominantly used for automatically notifying third parties via email when the recorded document returns from the recording jurisdiction. Of course, this feature is customizable, and later on, of course, when you do need to go ahead and have this email submitted to whether it be your customer or any third party, you are able to customize it. So for example, if you want to add your own company logo, a company name, your contact info, these are some of the notable customizable features. And then, of course, once the email is received by the customer, they don't have to basically worry about having to look out for a letter in the mail. This feature, of course, takes care of a lot of the work.

And one thing I do want to mention here is that some of our clients that do get started and some title operations that I've worked with basically send out a lot of these types of notifications, or they need to have recorded images submitted to their clients. And them doing 400 or 500 transactions a month means having 400 or 500 of these letters or emails sent out. So this basically takes all the hard work away from you. You'll have the ability to enter the customers or your customer's email address. And then once the document is recorded by the jurisdiction, a notification is generated, which again you can customize, as I mentioned before. A notification is generated with a copy of the attached instrument, which is automatically submitted to your customer.

Andy: All right. On this one, I'm going to discuss our property search services. We have the ability within ePrepare to run different types of reports. You can run a detailed report or a summary report of a property. You can also pull in images of the last financial document or the last mortgage or the last deed if the county allows them to be. If they have the images available for us to pull from, then we can, and you have the ability to order images of those documents.

And you can search properties through a number of mechanisms, whether it be the address, the owner. If you have the APN, you can search a property that way. And in some cases, you can even pull an assessor's map, there again if it's available, if the county makes them available. Then you can also pull in the last plat, if you will, or a survey of the property and be able to reference it through ePrepare as well.

All right. On this slide, it's just a quick overview of our eTrustee services. Around 9 or 10 states in the Midwest and West have a process in place that requires a trustee to be involved when releasing the original deed of trust, and we have a process in place for those transactions if you do not have a trustee involved in that transaction. So you need the original deed of trust to reference on the reconveyance or release, but you don't have that information, we have that ability to pull in and reference that original deed of trust, so therefore that data can be referenced on that release or reconveyance. It's available, there it is, in the states listed there —Arkansas, Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.

Musa: All right. Let's quickly look at the county fee calculation estimator. Having accurate fees for any documents they submit is definitely a very essential part of the whole recording experience. And our county fee calculator feature would allow you to pull county recording fees and taxes for all document types. All you would need to do is once this feature is enabled, just input some data points to be able to retrieve all of these estimated recording fees before you're able to submit your documents.

One thing, of course, to note here is that the data on all of these fees is sourced daily, which means the users will have the most accurate recording fee information for submission or reconciliation purposes. And submitters will have access to pull unlimited fees using either our monthly or yearly subscription options. And basically you could go to town with having these county calculations or fee calculations done.

Andy: All right. And on this slide, I'm going to talk about our paper recording services or our full service capabilities that we provide. Many of you may not be aware, but there's nearly 3,600 counties throughout the country, of which 2,400 roughly accept eRecording. So you hear that and you say, "Wow, a third of the country doesn't eRecord. What do I do now?" Bear in mind the 2,400 counties that do eRecord encompasses over 90% of the U.S. population. So those remaining 1,200 counties, in all likelihood you're not recording in those jurisdictions. But if you do, we have a team available to help you in that process.

As I alluded to earlier, we have a team based out of Tallahassee, Florida, that provides our full-service paper recording services. And literally you can put your documents in a package or a box if you have many of them, send them to our team in Tallahassee, and we'll process them and get them recorded for you. If it is an eRecording jurisdiction, they'll get your documents eRecorded, upload the recorded images into your ePrepare account so you have immediate access to the recorded instruments. And then they'll mail you the originals back to you along with the hard copy recorded documents. Or for those jurisdictions that don't accept eRecording, you mail them to our team in Tallahassee, and they'll disseminate them to the respective counties to be recorded, and ultimately return the recorded originals and recorded instruments back to you through the mail as well as uploading those recorded instruments into your ePrepare account.

So this slide illustrates, there again that word "agile," our ability to remain agile in the various industries and markets and provide ultimately a full-service component to our suite of services.

All right. And I'll just finish up with this slide. Just a quick overview of another service that oftentimes can go hand in hand with the recording and eRecording process when it comes to real estate transactions, and that's our UCC services. So we work closely with our UCC team. Oftentimes we share clients who have a need to use both our eRecording and UCC services. And I'd be remiss not to mention, at least to our audience, our ability to provide these UCC services. Our team is dedicated. They can search, they can file, monitor, and track. Everything that's related to the full UCC process and cycle, our team has the ability to do so. So if you have a need for UCC services, either as a standalone or in addition to our eRecording services, certainly let us know. We'll be more than happy to put you in contact with our great team over there at the UCC side.