The move to e-conveyancing is on the horizon, and one expert says it will give brokers peace of mind and make the application process smoother.
Chris Evans, general manager business development and relationships at First Mortgage Services, says the shift won’t affect brokers’ day-to-day business activities drastically.
“But it will give them some surety around once a settlement is in the PEXA system you pretty much get instantaneous registration,” says Evans, “whereas at the moment they’re waiting until the institution stamps their documents, lodges their documents and then it’s a manual process by the titles office when they’re going to register those documents, whereas with the PEXA system it makes that all electronic and it happens within seconds or minutes.”
The technology will in time speed up the process and create efficiency for lenders, but Evans refutes claims that the switch will make it easier for lenders to bypass the broker channel and go direct to consumers.
“I don’t think it will actually because you’ve still got to apply for your loan, you’ve got to be a subscriber or something to the system so I don’t think it will impact the broker’s side in any way shape or form there - electronic conveyancing is not a risk to the broker market.”
Currently all four major banks are signed up to the PEXA system and are currently using it to process stand-alone discharges and lodgements of mortgages where there are no other documents involved, says Evans.
All majors bar
Westpac are also using the system to process refinances.
“Where FMS fits in is we currently act for 30 different lenders in the market so we’re going to be part of release one and we’re probably going to do two or three of our lenders and lodge the standalone discharges and mortgages as part of that process,” says Evans.
The system will be made available to third party channels from September, and plans are to gradually roll it out across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia in stages.
“At the moment it will be across the four states. It’s a slow- burner because 80% of transactions, when it’s all up and running, can be done through electronic conveyancing, so there’ll always be that 20% that are manual.
“By about 2017/18 80% of that 80% should be up and running so we’ve got a few years before we get to that stage, and it’s just controlling the rollout and all that up until then.”
