ESRA News
eNotaryLog’s Digital Counsel, Tim Reiniger, Honored with National Notary Association Award for Spearheading Remote Online Notarization
Reiniger’s insights and commitment continue to pave the road for notary advancement, securely and digitally.
Tampa, Fla. (June 8, 2022) – Tim Reiniger, eNotaryLog’s digital counsel, was recognized at this year’s National Notary Association’s (NNA) annual conference with the 2022 March Fong Eu Achievement Award. Reiniger’s commitment and ongoing efforts to the notarial role and process has included the creation of remote online notarization (RON) in over 40 states, thus providing secure, convenient, and accessible RON services for notaries and signers throughout the United States.
The March Fong Eu Achievement Award is given annually to the individual or organization that, in the judgment of the NNA’s Executive Committee, has done the most to improve the standards, image, and quality of the office of a notary public. The March Fong Eu Achievement Award goes to honorees whose efforts led to creating or implementing a new law, program, or policy with a significant beneficial impact on the notary office.
Reiniger commented, “In the early days of the United States, Notaries were important commercial officers for international trade and later land transactions. Now we hear every day about digital commerce, which is founded on being able to verify digital identity. Notaries are becoming an important ‘low code’ assurance player in this, but the question is how best to integrate Notaries as an essential human component in the digital age. It’s a very exciting time for the Notary office.”
Reiniger played a crucial role in creating the nation’s first remote online notarization law in Virginia when use of audio-visual technology by notaries wasn’t fully understood or trusted. He helped write the RON law as well as a cutting-edge digital identity law in Virginia and spearheaded the movement for RON. After Virginia, Reiniger also worked onenactments in Montana and Texas and subsequently nearly every other state. As a result, he was commissioned by the American Bar Association as an advisor to the Uniform Law Commission’s Revised Uniform Law on Notarial Acts. His influence and work in Virginia continue to help state governors and notary commissioning officials write laws to allow remaining states to pass remote online notarization.
Bill Anderson, the NNA’s vice president of government affairs, said about Reiniger, “Every state that has enacted remote notarization owes Timothy Reiniger a debt of gratitude. In 2011, Timothy essentially had to invent how to use technology to securely identify a remote signer for a notarial act when there weren’t any similar use cases — he had to figure it out himself. It takes vision to do that, and that’s hard.”
About eNotaryLog, LLC
eNotaryLog provides nationwide remote online notarization (RON) and electronic signature solutions through its cloud-based digital services platform. The RON platform is MISMO-certified, SOC 2 compliant, and audited by leading global law firm and fintech advisor DLA Piper. With its secure technologies and RON-certified in-house notaries, consumers and businesses can notarize documents anytime and anywhere for time-saving convenience. Companies can also leverage APIs for direct integration and use their notaries to provide a convenient and seamless client experience. From online notarization of life’s essential documents to standalone electronic signature services and other emerging legal technologies, eNotaryLog focuses on simplifying digital document execution. Learn more at enotarylog.com and view career opportunities.
Tim Reiniger, eNotaryLog digital counsel
ESRA Supports E-Sign Modernization Act
The Electronic Signature and Records Association (ESRA) supports the E-Sign Modernization Act of 2022 (S. 3715), legislation sponsored by Senators Thune, Young, Blackburn, and Moran that updates the E-SIGN Act and allows businesses and consumers an even greater ability to eliminate paper and save time and money through the adoption of electronic signatures.
The last few years have illustrated the benefits of electronic solutions such as eSignatures that enable businesses to serve their customers remotely and securely. ESRA appreciates that this bill is narrowly targeted to reflect how consumers access, and sign, documents today – while preserving existing consumer protections.
6 Financial Services Trends to Watch in 2022
This post was submitted by DocuSign and was originally posted on their website. Thank you to DocuSign for sharing your industry knowledge!
Financial services organizations have always kept a pulse on new technologies, but the global landscape shift in 2020 rapidly accelerated the importance of committing to digital transformation. With very little warning, teams had to radically evolve operations to meet new employee and customer demands.
Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to answer some important questions around the future of financial services. Which changes are here to stay? How should brick-and-mortar locations operate moving forward? How is the industry landscape shifting? How can momentum from the past two years be preserved as digital solutions are made a more permanent part of everyday operations? What’s the right balance to strike between security and customer experience?
To help your team answer those questions and more, DocuSign has identified six critical trends in global financial services.
1. Banking customers have more options than ever
In the last few years, the industry has been flooded with new banking options. Challenger banks and neo-banks like Chime and Discover Bank have gained traction with their innovative technology and online-only services. We’ve also seen new banking options from established players in other industries. With the rise of embedded finance and banking-as-a-service, tech giants and retailers are joining the mix and redefining the banking landscape.
2021 alone saw remarkable banking activity. SoFi acquired Golden Pacific Bancorp, Amazon partnered with Affirm and Walgreens launched its own credit card services for members. It’s clear that the evolving marketplace is full of new ideas and if a bank wants to stay competitive, innovation is necessary.
2. Banking customers increasingly expect a mobile-first experience
Besides competition from new players in the market, banks also face pressure from existing and prospective customers who embrace digital-first transactions. This is not a trend that is exclusive to the pandemic. Branch usage declined by an average of 35% between 2015 – 2020. Today’s customers anticipate that 61% of their business with banks will be digital by 2024.
People are still banking, they’re just managing basic transactions on their mobile devices via self-service. The way to provide them with better service and retain their loyalty is to improve their in-app experience. Poorly designed digital experiences are a primary attrition driver for banks, and younger generations in particular favor mobile devices for activities like opening a deposit account.
With these preferences in mind, it’s no surprise that banks rank customer digital experience as their number one business challenge and priority investment area for the coming year. Financial institutions looking to elevate their customer experience should consider increasing SMS outreach efforts, improving self-service capabilities with embedded tools, simplifying complex applications with guided forms and adjusting to recent remote notary laws that allow new types of documents to be notarized digitally. The goal of these investments is not just to meet customers where they are now, it’s to anticipate where they are going and meet those expectations.
3. Financial institutions must adapt to accommodate a hybrid workforce
Another important audience to serve is employees. In conjunction with customer preferences to take banking outside the four walls of a local branch, employees are embracing work from more locations. Among financial institutions, 70% expect to pivot to hybrid work. As part of that shift, they need to thoughtfully consider how they foster collaboration and productivity across remote and in-person environments.
An easy place to start making that transition is the technology ecosystem. By connecting the pieces in that infrastructure and making the entire system easy to navigate, financial institutions can ensure that employees have a smooth interaction from any work location. In the past two years, teams got used to relying on Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google to keep employees connected. By adding integrations to these communication tools as well as key banking systems (like nCino), financial institutions can streamline workflows and keep employees connected from anywhere.
Any team preparing for the anywhere economy can start by examining their current internal workflows and identifying manual steps that can be replaced with secure, automated and connected digital tools. It’s the easiest way to prepare employees for success and improve internal efficiency for critical business processes.
4. Investments must be made in cybersecurity and fraud mitigation
Rapidly digitizing internal and external interactions introduces an organization to a series of new security vulnerabilities. But the time to be reactive is over; it’s time to look forward and innovate in a way that will refine, secure and de-risk the new systems.
FIs aren’t the only ones keeping an eye on the evolving security landscape. Today’s regulators know that the landscape has changed and will be keeping a tighter watch on financial institutions. For instance, starting this May, federally regulated banks must report all cybersecurity incidents within 36 hours. Near the end of last year, the FTC amended its Safeguards Rule to require FTC-regulated organizations to develop and implement detailed cybersecurity requirements. Open banking, already gaining popularity in Europe and gathering traction in the U.S., will bring new regulatory attention to data sharing and security.
As financial institutions make plans to shore up security efforts, the DocuSign team has a few recommendations to keep in mind. First, incorporate various authentication and identification solutions (e.g. multi-factor authentication, knowledge-based authentication (KBA), and electronic identity verification) into your system to enhance security. Manage that system with a robust central administration that tightly controls access to sensitive documents and customer information. Finally, leverage advanced analytics to track activity in real time, detect potential threats and respond to incidents quickly.
5. There are opportunities to innovate in new revenue-creating areas
If any financial institution is relying solely on traditional streams of revenue, they’re going to run into trouble. There is increasing pressure from the public and CFPB for banks to slash or eliminate overdraft fees, crushing billions of dollars in revenue. Many anticipate that two years of pandemic-induced monetary stimulus may cause the Federal Reserve to raise the federal funds rate in an effort to combat rising inflation. As a result, financial institutions may see a decrease in their 2022 lending volumes.
Against this backdrop, it’s important for financial institutions to look for revenue opportunities in other areas. Embracing a more digital strategy is one step toward increasing revenue streams through cost reduction.The focus of digital efforts often has been on the retail side, but the commercial side is ripe for transformation as well.
Among business lenders, only 33% have a digital application process in place. For that group, the biggest challenge in document preparation is repetitive data entry. A digital application process, managed with a contract management tool, is an easy solution to that problem. These tools help financial institutions improve efficiency and lower cost for a commercial banking and lending business. From a process perspective, a contract management solution can integrate contract data with core systems, reduce workflow bottlenecks, simplify signatures and improve analysis with concept-based intelligent search functionality.
6. Increasing pressure to improve sustainability
There is more pressure than ever for financial institutions to go beyond superficial “greenwashing” efforts and demonstrate truly sustainable practices. There’s more information than ever for eco-conscious individuals to uncover information about resource consumption and simple lip service will no longer be convincing.
The push is coming from both customers and employees. Research shows that 54% of Gen-Z and millennial consumers would consider switching their primary bank based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. These can also be important considerations for prospective employees who are concerned with finding an employer with a mission that matches their personal values.
FInancial institutions need to incorporate sustainability into every part of their operations, starting with a reduction of energy and paper consumption. They can also explore products and services that contribute to broader sustainability efforts, such as green home improvement loans, sustainability linked incentives and ESG-focused investments.
Planning the blueprint for tomorrow’s financial services
This year presents a significant opportunity for financial institutions to future-proof their systems. These six trends illustrate the direction the industry is headed and proactive financial institutions will evolve to meet expectations. To keep up with all the industry changes and customer demands, they’ll need a more powerful set of business tools.
Security and trust are always at the forefront of financial service providers’ priorities. Embracing a digital-first approach, sustainability initiatives and streamlined processes for both customer and employee experiences will allow them to stay relevant and competitive in this ever-changing market.
