Wells Fargo Home Lending has entered into an agreement with eOriginal, a leading digital solution provider for the mortgage industry, to enable the purchase of eNotes through Wells Fargo’s correspondent channel, Wells Fargo Funding. The launch of eNote capabilities by Wells Fargo, the nation’s leading residential mortgage aggregator, represents a major step forward in the continuing digitization of the mortgage industry.
“Our ability to purchase eNotes is the latest step in our expansion in the digital lending space that broadens our approach to serving consumers and clients as we transform our mortgage business,” said Michael DeVito, head of Wells Fargo Home Lending. “We’re committed to delivering innovative solutions throughout the mortgage lending process. With eOriginal providing eVault services, we’re aligned with a company that has a proven track record in the digital lending community.”
An eNote is an electronic version of what traditionally was a paper document. As the evidence of the obligation to repay the mortgage loan, the eNote needs to be stored digitally in a way that ensures it has the same legal enforceability as paper. eOriginal provides this storage capability through its eVault service.
“Lenders transitioning into digital mortgage can move forward knowing a trusted technology partner is aligned with the industry’s leading aggregator,” said eOriginal CEO Brian Madocks. “This agreement with Wells Fargo facilitates a new, essential outlet for lenders to deliver loans with eNotes into the secondary market. The capability will make digital mortgages accessible to a broad spectrum of lenders who can realize the advantages of going digital, such as increased efficiency and improved execution while also reducing risk.”
Wells Fargo will begin purchasing eNotes from a select group of lenders, to be followed by a broader market offering throughout 2019.
This is the second significant digital initiative launched by Wells Fargo Home Lending in 2018. Earlier in the year, Wells Fargo introduced an online mortgage application for its retail origination consumers, which pre-populates existing customer data and helps reduce the time it takes to open and close a mortgage loan application. This online application accounted for 28 percent of retail applications in September.
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