Login
ISCOVER
The emerging national e-conveyancing network will transform Australia from being “quite far behind” other countries to “far advanced”.
By the end of 2015, all the appropriate systems will be in place and the network will include all states except the ACT, according to PEXA, the government agency overseeing the roll-out.
To continue reading the rest of this article, please log in.
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Create free account to get unlimited news articles and more!
Looking for more benefits? Become a Premium Member.
Patti Eyers, chief executive of mortgage processing firm First Mortgage Services, said her experience of being part of a group that operates in 60 countries made her realise that Australia was “quite far behind” in terms of automating the settlement process.
However, Ms Eyers said the emerging e-conveyancing system would make Australia “far advanced” than other countries because it would leapfrog their level of automation.
In countries such as New Zealand and Canada, they do have the e-conveyancing capability there, and live,” she told The Adviser in a video interview.
“But what you’ll find in some of those jurisdictions is electronic documents are exchanged but the dispersement of funds is still a manual one. Australia will surpass that once the platform is at its full capability.”
Ms Eyers said PEXA would have to charge a reasonable price if it wanted the public to embrace e-conveyancing. People would also have to be open to new ideas, she added.
“We’ve had this manual, labour-intensive process for an awfully long time for that settlement piece of the process, and old habits are hard to change,” she said.
“So take-up will be a key issue for PEXA – they’re certainly focused on that and I think have made good traction in that area.”
Ms Eyers told The Adviser that brokers would benefit from e-conveyancing, because the system would be more efficient and transparent, which would lead to better customer outcomes.
[Related: E-conveyancing will mean more competition, inquiry told]
