Canadian firm establishing digital registry for mortgages

NEWSWIRE: Jan. 7, 2017.

DATELINE: Toronto

A Canadian-based entity has been certified to store documents on behalf of the Canadian corporation that manages the securitization of government-backed consumer mortgages, clearing the way for a first-ever digital registry of these documents.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.’s decision last month to certify CST Trust Company effectively ends a 30-year monopoly by Australia-based Computer Share, Inc. Computer Share had been using a manual process to record some of the data it stored.

Banks in Canada hold onto a copy of their own loan records, of course, but the CMHC requires the same records it uses to be held by a third party, for risk management reasons.

Frank Turzanski, a senior vice president with CST, told the Finanical Post that his company is “building a digital registry concept and this may diversify how mortgages are funded in Canada.”

“Our goal is to move beyond the physical document storage system that currently exists and advance the market towards an e-signature model,” Turzanski said in a statement. “Issuers, originators and investors alike will benefit from increased efficiency and reduced risk.”

The CMHC’s director of securitization operations told the Financial Post that its current database does have electronic copies of all records, but they are not searchable.

Read the full article here.