Non-major lender adopts digital signatures

The non-major bank has confirmed that it is now accepting e-signatures on home loan documents, as it moves to digitise the loan process.

Last year, ME Bank (ME) become one of the early adopters of remote VOI when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit (enabling brokers to verify a borrower’s identify via digital means such as FaceTime of Skype), stating that it would also look to launch digital signatures “to get a whole new end-to-end home loan engine running”.

ME has now advised brokers that it has made a range of changes effective this week, including the acceptance of digital signatures.

The bank said it had changed its policy regarding the acceptance of digital signatures after “looking for ways to make working with [ME] simpler and easier”.

It will now allow all types of digital signatures on all documents throughout the home loan submission, up until unconditional approval. This will also negate the requirement for brokers to send a confirmation email that the documents had been signed.

However, the bank said the Letter of Offer would still be required to be signed by hand, with a signature matching those provided on other supporting documents.

As well as moving to e-signatures, the bank said it had also made a range of credit policy changes, effective as of yesterday (9 June), which include:

• Increasing the shading of bonus income from 60 per cent to 80 per cent;
• Allowing applicants to have up to two non-financial defaults (for example, utility or phone company defaults) totalling less than $1,000; and
• Reducing the maximum loan-to-value ratio for construction of residential property with a registered builder from 95 per cent to 90 per cent.

[Related: CBA rolls out digital signatures]