RALEIGH, N.C., May 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On Friday, May 5, 2017, North State Bank Mortgage, a division of North State Bank, sealed its place at the forefront of mortgage technology by completing North Carolina's first-ever fully-electronic mortgage closing, said J. Kenneth Sykes, president. The eClosing took place just after 12:00 p.m. at North State Bank Mortgage's office in Hickory, North Carolina and the deed will be e-recorded in Forsyth County. Jamie H. Harrington (NMLS# 111660), mortgage market manager, was the loan officer.

On hand for the eClosing was North Carolina's Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, a champion for eCommerce and a driving force behind bringing the fully electronic mortgage closing to fruition. Along with her team, she has worked with mortgage industry experts since August 2016 to launch the nation's first statewide electronic closing pilot program, with the goal of developing a set of best practices that give banks across North Carolina a road map to pursue electronic closings that are safe, fast and efficient for both borrowers and lenders.

"This is an exciting day for everyone at North State Bank Mortgage," said Sykes. "Making the mortgage loan process easier and more convenient for our customers is a priority for us. To be able to eClose will both enhance and simplify the customer experience. Being the first mortgage company in North Carolina to complete a fully-electronic mortgage is a testament to our commitment. It was an honor and a pleasure to work closely with Secretary Marshall and her team in pursuit of this goal. Now we can say: mission accomplished."

In addition to Secretary Marshall, the eClosing was attended by Ozie Stallworth, Director of Electronic Notarization and Notary Enforcement at the North Carolina Department of the Secretary of State, who led the eClosing Pilot Program on behalf of the Secretary; Matt Hunoval, Founder of the Hunoval Law Firm, who worked with the Secretary's team on the legal aspects of the eClosing process and whose firm served as closing attorney for the loan; members of the North State Bank Mortgage team, including Kelly Arrington, senior vice president and chief mortgage operations officer, and Beth Eller, senior vice president and mortgage sales director; and, local dignitaries from Hickory and Catawba County, including representatives from the City Council of Hickory, NC, the Catawba County Board of Commissioners, the Catawba County Democratic Party and the Catawba Valley Board of Realtors.

After the closing, Secretary Marshall said: "The mortgage loan closing process took a giant step into the electronic age today with the completion of North Carolina's first fully electronic mortgage closing. None of the safeguards you expect when you close are missing. None of the professionals you expect to see when you close are absent today. The only thing missing is the stack of paper documents that slow down the transaction and that sometimes themselves cause delays and confusion."

On the eClosing as well as the gains in efficiency, Matt Hunoval shared: "The end-to-end eClosing, a truly collaborative event, went from an idea to commercial reality in only nine months. The transaction took 20 minutes to complete, with the total time of the closing taking 50% less time than a traditional closing."

More information on eClosing will be presented at the 2017 American Mortgage Conference in Raleigh, NC on May 17 – 19, where a panel discussion will include Hunoval, Stallworth, and Sykes, as well as Dave Worrall, president of Loan Care Servicing, the subservicer of NC's first eClosed loan, and Mike Cafferky, eMortgage Program Manager at Fannie Mae (http://www.cvent.com/events/american-mortgage-conference/event-summary-3c1dc3195a15404e956c10a79fda0263.aspx).

About North State Bank Mortgage (NMLS# 411971):
North State Bank Mortgage is the mortgage lending division of North State Bank, with offices in: Apex, Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, Garner, Greensboro, Hendersonville, Hickory, Kernersville, Lake Norman, Lexington, Raleigh, the Outer Banks, Wake Forest, Wilmington and Winston-Salem.

About North State Bank:
Founded in 2000, North State Bank, a wholly-owned subsidiary of North State Bancorp ("the Company" – NSBC), is a full-service community bank serving Wake and New Hanover Counties through seven full-service offices.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements for various reasons, including our ability to manage growth, changes in real estate values and the real estate market, regulatory changes and increased deposit insurance assessments, economic conditions, changes in interest rates, substantial changes in financial markets, loss of deposits and loan demand to other savings and financial institutions and our limited operating history.

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SOURCE North State Bank Mortgage