The demand to meet evolving industry compliance standards - such as new federal regulations for mortgage lending - affects more than 90 percent of paperless and eMortgage programs, according to Xerox's 10th annual Path to Paperless survey.
However, 83 percent – up from 68 percent in 2013 – of mortgage professional participants believe the mortgage industry will close more than half of all loans as an eMortgage within the next seven years.
"What we're seeing is continued industry support for paperless processes despite compliance pressures," said Jamie Williamson, vice president, sales, Xerox Mortgage Services. "Our survey shows that companies are evaluating and implementing several paperless methods to extend electronic collaboration to all participants in the loan process."
Almost 74 percent of respondents noted that their company is implementing new technologies, and eSignature and collaboration features were key criteria when evaluating offerings. Xerox is helping with its BlitzDocs® intelligent cloud-based collaborative network, simplifying the mortgage process from origination through to servicing.
The survey also indicated other trends towards the paperless movement, including:
Seventy percent of respondents have paperless origination and underwriting in place, and 21 percent expect to have these capabilities by the year's end;
Twenty percent of mortgage professionals experienced an increase in eClosings;
Respondents named automated classification, workflow capabilities and OCR data capture as other important qualities in mortgage technology.
"While we continue to work with the industry to make the paperless world a reality, we have to be mindful and prepare for the next evolution, like mobility," said Williamson. "Our survey found that 77 percent of respondents would like to use their mobile devices to complete transactions, but only 13 percent currently participate in the mobile initiative, and security risks came into question again."
Survey respondents included a diverse group of mortgage professionals with backgrounds in loan origination, correspondent buying, and servicing.
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