Alltel Pilots Use of Digital Signatures.(Brief Article)

Application service provider Alltel has been testing the use of digital signatures to automate the lending process.

John Crowley, a product planning and strategy executive in Alltel's financial services unit, said the aim of the pilot was to focus on investment in digital signature technology in processes such as loan origination.

In the mortgage industry, Mr. Crowley said that digital signature technology would allow loan origination paperwork to be turned into data, which would make boarding loans onto Alltel's loan servicing program more efficient. The servicing department relies heavily on electronic data, and converting origination documents to electronic format would facilitate automated loan boarding.

Last summer, Alltel decided to start a pilot looking at the use of digital certificates and public key infrastructure, now authorized for use as signatures in legal documents, to create electronic loan origination documents.

The digital certificates are used as a mechanism to identify the user, much as a "wet" signature traditionally is used to identify a party to a transaction.

Mr. Crowley said Alltel has started to uncover "opportunities for a solutions provider" to create a place in cyberspace for electronic transactions to take place.

Alltel ...