(name withheld)
Business Banking Manager
Australian & New Zealand Banking Group Limited
The FTRA (or 100-point) Standard, although widely known and used, is more than 20 years old. It was devised before the development of desktop publishing and the wide availability of inexpensive, high-quality colour printing. It is generally considered to be from an era when identity fraud was much less of a problem generally and to Land Registries than it is today. While still a useful general-purpose standard, it is considered by Land Registries to be insufficiently rigorous for deterring fraud in land title transactions.
Elecronic conveyancing doesn’t have a fixed definition.
NECS decribes it as an efficient and convenient way of completing property based transactions and lodging land title dealings for registration. In others word conducting a financial settlement electronically and registering land registry instruments electronically rather than with paper forms lodged over the counter.
247Legal has attempted to define electronic conveyancing - the system of exchanging sales & mortgage documentation and property data electronically between vendor & buyer, agent & lawyer, brokers & banks, government & land registry from point of sale to contract to settlement without (or with minimal) printed documentation.
Or perhaps electronic conveyancing can be as simple as being able to exchange documents electronically.
To be able to exchange documents electronically, by email for example, you have to be able to convert a paper document into an electronic document. The most common method is to use a scanner and the most common format is a PDF.
For the past 30 years, the fax has been the most common method for exchanging documents. If it has not yet happened, soon scanned to email documents will overtake the fax, which is common sense. But fax technology continues to dominate the industry, particularly with the 4 major banks. This is despite headlines for example that the approval times blow out at one major bank because its fax machines are being clogged (Herald Sun March 10, 2009). The banks' back office operations must be drowning in faxes, as testimony by the conveyancing industry provides in legions of stories of lost faxes.
Fax technology is redundant. Or it should be
If your office still does not own or use a scanner, 247Legal has done some bench testing on scanners and scanning options that might help you to cross over.
The bench test is a 15 page contract of sale using an enterprise and desktop scanner as well as a fax to email service. The scan test was timed from placing the document into the scanner or the fax
Toshiba Estudio 4511
| 37 seconds | $14,315 |
Fujitsu duplex fi-4120C
| 1 minute 55 seconds | $1,400 |
| Mbox fax to email | 57 seconds** being the time spent to send the fax ** the Brother MFC fax scans to memory, then sends and it may be several minutes before you receive the email with PDF attachment | $10 per month plus cost of local call |
The Toshiba I would describe as the mothership won hands down. But for the price of a small car, you want to be pumping out volume. But then again this is a true multi function device, for a fully networked print, copy, scan solution.
The Fujistu is a great compact desktop scanner capable of scanning duplex. Having used this model for several years, the author can attest to its usefulness and reliability. The current model is the 6120, is faster than the 4120 and comes bundled with a full version of Adobe Acrobat which is a significant cost saving in itself.
If you are not ready to make the investment in a scanner of your own, there is an alternative that can transform your existing fax machine into a scanner. By subscribing to a fax to email service likembox.com.au, any business can convert their current fax machine to a scanner. Take any document, feed it into your fax, dial your mbox fax number, and voila a minute or two later, the sent fax will be back in your inbox as a "scanned" PDF. And the bonus is, because mbox is a fax to email service, all your inbound faxes can be delivered to you as email as well. Mbox provides an effective low cost alternative to buying a dedicated scanner. Its not quite retiring the fax, but its giving it a new lease of life. The basic mbox service costs $9.95 per month
Conveyancers and lawyers are in the paper business. Today, the scanner is a basic tool of trade. If you are not ready to buy, consider subscribing to a fax to email service to gain the benefits of the paper saving. Or if you can buy, buy the best your can afford. It will pay for itself many times over and it is part of the matrix that we call electronic conveyancing.
The Property Registration Authority (PRA) in partnership with the Law Society andIrish Mortgage Council has developed a new online system which will enable lending institutions to request the cancellation of registered charges by electronic means without the need to submit any paper to the PRA. The new system – known as eDischarges - will be more secure, efficient and transparent than the existing process and will eliminate many of the inefficiencies and delays currently experienced when mortgages have been redeemed.
Catherine Treacy, Chief Executive of the PRA said “The launch of this new system for processing discharges of charges in a completely paperless environment is public validation of a significant amount of work undertaken over the past two years. While planning and development work has been ongoing for several years this is the first public step on a journey that will ultimately lead to a complete system of electronic conveyancing in Ireland. All of the parties, particularly the staff in the PRA who have worked on the development of this system, can take great pride in their achievement. The PRA would like to place on record its sincere thanks for the contribution made by the Law Society and Irish Mortgage Council and our colleagues in the Revenue Commissioners and Companies Registration Office, to the successful delivery of the new eDischarges system.”
The development of an eDischarges capability by the PRA is central to the development of a national system of electronic registration of title (eRegistration). The launch of eDischarges will also mark the delivery of the first element of eConveyancing in Ireland.
Gabriel Brennan, Law Society eConveyancing Project Manager said “The Law Society is delighted to be involved in this exciting initiative and thanks the PRA staff and Irish Banking Federation (IBF)for working so closely with the legal profession on the design of this new system. As a result of this collaboration inefficiencies and delays in the release of registered charges will be eliminated. Also in conjunction with this project the Law Society and IBF have initiated a new streamlined procedure for requesting title deeds, redemption figures and discharge of a charge. Together these two initiatives represent significant reform of the conveyancing process. There remains, however, considerable work to be done to reach the ultimate goal of eConveyancing and the Law Society looks forward to building on this progress with the PRA and IBF in the coming years.”
Three lending institutions - Permanent TSB, AIB and KBC Bank - will launch the live system on the 30th March 2009 and, two weeks later on the 14th April, the system will be available to all lenders.
Pat Farrell, Chief Executive of IBF said “There was great appreciation amongst IBF members for the constructive nature of the working relationship with both the PRA and the Law Society. This dialogue has led to the first tangible milestone on the road towards a fully functioning eConveyancing system in Ireland. IBF welcomes the move towards a modern, paperless and streamlined conveyancing system. Ultimately, eConveyancing throughthe introduction of a technology driven process will benefit Irish consumers and other stakeholders in the form of enhanced consistency, transparency and reduction in time and costs. In the meantime, IBF looks forward to continued engagement with the PRA and Law Society to achieve further improvements to the conveyancing process.”
Source Sarah Long in Changes in land registry practice and procedure in other countries
