Contact:

Kathleen McNeilly
Phone: 703-761-1274
Email: kathleenm@mersinc.org

Vienna, VA – Last week, MERS launched the second phase of an innovative process, MERS® 1-2-3, that will reduce 90% of the data entry required for registering a loan on the MERS® System. GreenPoint Mortgage Funding, Resource Bancshares Mortgage Group (RBMG), and Principal Residential Mortgage provided the initial funding for the new online system and cooperated with MERS in product design and testing. Digital Docs was the document preparation partner.

“MERS® 1-2-3 was conceived to help MERS members more rapidly convert their correspondents and brokers into MERS® Ready trading partners,” said Dan McLaughlin, MERS Executive Vice President, Product Division. “We’re very excited about the launch of Phase II because it removes any barriers from a small company that wants to deliver MOM loans.”

“MERS has proved itself an extremely valuable tool for GreenPoint Mortgage Funding in managing our correspondent activities,” said S.A. Ibrahim, GreenPoint Mortgage's President and CEO. “It creates significant savings in time and cost required to process loans from our correspondent partners. Phase II has features that help streamline that channel even more by allowing non-MERS members to enjoy the benefits and cost savings that this system provides.”

Phase I of MERS® 1-2-3, launched January 1, 2002, enables MERS Members and nonmembers to 1) generate a valid assignment to MERS through participating document providers, and 2) generate and affix a valid Mortgage Identification Number (MIN) to the assignment. The MIN is reserved on the MERS® System for future registration. MERS® 1-2-3 Users must deliver the loan to their intended purchaser (the Investor to whom they are selling the loan) within 10 business days of recording the assignment to MERS.

In addition to creating valid assignments to MERS for non-MOM loans, Phase II allows MERS Members and nonmembers to generate a complete closing package or alternatively just a note and a MOM security instrument. The process also creates a preliminary registration file on the MERS® System that expedites the final registration process.

“MERS® 1-2-3 is the most revolutionary product in standardizing document compliance in the mortgage industry that I have seen in my career,” said Chris A. Peirson, President of DigitalDocs Inc.

Many correspondent lenders and brokers use document preparation services to generate their closing documents. MERS® 1-2-3 will leverage these services to simplify MERS registration through a three-step process.

“Principal Residential Mortgage is proud to support the MERS® 1-2-3 process, as it benefits lenders, investors and the mortgage industry as a whole. This evolutionary process reduces cost and streamlines the mortgage selling process -- two attributes Principal Residential implements in its own business as we serve our mortgage partners. By converting to MERS, lenders can spend more time serving their customers and building their business,” said Phil Kuhn, Vice President of Correspondent Lending for Principal Residential Mortgage, Inc.

“We appreciate these industry leaders coming together to help develop this product,” said Carson Mullen, MERS Executive Vice President, Customer Division. “It demonstrates that MERS has become a business standard and it shows how we may benefit the industry as a whole with a product like MERS® 1-2-3.”

“Our goal in developing MERS® 1-2-3 is to facilitate a better, faster, and more cost-effective registration process that encourages all