While the ultimate benefit of moving mortgage originations into the electronic age is a streamlined process that saves time and resources and minimizes errors, the actual transition to a paperless environment can be cumbersome and costly.

Enter Xerox Corporation. The company says it can help the industry overcome the hurdles of eMortgage adoption with new on-demand services that require little set-up or upfront investment.

At the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Technology in Mortgage Banking Conference this week, Xerox Mortgage Services, showcased eVault, a virtual repository of electronic loan documents that directly connects to the Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS).

Xerox says eVault users have the ability to securely store and manage electronic promissory notes (eNotes) for funding, post-closing, servicing, and custodial purposes,

with instant access to the status of an eMortgage at any stage of the process. The MERS integration also allows loan stakeholders to verify the authenticity of the eNotes, to ensure secure and legally binding transactions.

Xerox currently stores more than 35,000 mortgage documents in its eVault, which is located in Texas, with a backup data center in Georgia, where the company’s mortgage services division is headquartered.

The system is agnostic to document provider or closing platform by leveraging industry-wide standards such as the Mortgage Industry Maintenance Standards Organization (MISMO), as well as the MERS eRegistry.

In addition, the eVault has undergone integration testing with Fannie Mae’s eMortgage Delivery system, offering Fannie Mae sellers a streamlined approach to delivering electronic mortgages.

“By introducing the eVault, with established connectivity to MERS, we’re accelerating the move to eMortgages and delivering the mortgage industry access to the technology it needs without a major capital investment,” said Greg Smith, VP of Xerox Mortgage Services.

The industry is beginning to move farther into the electronic space. Earlier this month, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced that it will accept electronic signatures on certain documents in order to help speed the loan approval process.

A 2008 survey by Xerox found that 69 percent of respondents noted decreased cost as a primary benefit of going paperless, followed by offering better service and loan turnaround.