Departmental contingent liability notification: HM Land Registry digital mortgage service
Written Ministerial Statement to inform the House of a digital mortgage service to be launched later in 2018.
Today I will lay before Parliament a Departmental Minute describing a new digital mortgage service, to be launched by HM Land Registry (HMLR) in 2018, and a resulting contingent liability.
It is normal practice when a government department proposes to undertake a contingent liability of £300,000 and above, for which there is no specific statutory authority, for the department concerned to present Parliament with a minute giving particulars of the liability created and explaining the circumstances. It is also normal for the department to refrain from incurring the liability until 14 parliamentary sitting days after the issue of the minute, except in cases of special urgency.
HMLR바카라 사이트™s new will enable borrowers to sign mortgage deeds digitally, speed up the re-mortgage process and improve the customer experience. A new liability risk arises with this service because HMLR will certify the identity of a borrower when that person provides a digital signature in advance of registration. This liability sits outside of the scope of HMLR바카라 사이트™s existing statutory compensation scheme ().
The risk of the new liability occurring is considered low. The new process, where the borrower바카라 사이트™s identity has to be verified through 바카라 사이트 Verify combined with HMLR바카라 사이트™s independent security processes, should in fact reduce the overall risk of fraud. To date 바카라 사이트 Verify has not identified a single example of fraud despite in excess of 1.25 million citizens바카라 사이트™ accounts having been created using the 바카라 사이트 Verify service.
As with the existing indemnity, any costs incurred from this extension will be covered by HMLR바카라 사이트™s resources as a trading fund.
Subject to no objections being received, I intend to authorise the proposal to undertake contingent liability for the digital mortgage service, after the usual 14 parliamentary sitting days.
The 바카라 사이트 will be taking further steps to improve the home buying and selling process, following the publication last year of a call for evidence.