RESTON, US: Today, MERSCORP, Inc. president and chief executive officer, R.K. Arnold, thanked SunTrust Mortgage for putting its trust with the mortgage banking utility as an increasing number of leading financial institutions make the same choice.

Earlier this month, SunTrust Mortgage announced that all closed loans delivered to the company as of April 1, 2010 must be registered on the MERS System, and that all SunTrust Mortgage correspondent clients must be MERS members who are able to register and track the transfer of loans through MERS.

“We appreciate the confidence placed in us by SunTrust Mortgage and our entire roster of partner clients,” Arnold said. “MERS continues to simplify life for our business partners by streamlining the residential mortgage process. We’re proud of this growth because it reflects the value we provide to our members.”

The announcement followed closely on the heels of similar a statement from Wells Fargo, which set its effective date for closed loans on January 4, 2010 and another by The Independent Bankers Bank in September 2009. The requirement by each bank will improve the tracking and servicing of mortgage applications.

MERS was created by the mortgage industry to more easily identify and track individual mortgage loans and the information related to those loans, including the servicer and investor. A member of MERS tracks an individual mortgage loan by means of a permanent 18-digit Mortgage Identification Number (MIN) which is registered on the MERS System. With a MIN, mortgages and related data can be tracked from origination through the life of the loan.

MERS benefits consumers by making the loan process more efficient, by taking out soft and hard dollar costs to the lenders by eliminating paper. This ultimately makes it easier and less expensive for borrowers to get mortgage loans. It also helps reduced fraud --- and less fraud means lower costs for all borrowers.

Since 1997, more than 63 million home mortgages have been assigned a MIN and have been registered on the MERS System. Today, more than 60 percent of all newly originated mortgages have a MIN, including loans delivered to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Ginnie Mae, all major conduits and state housing authorities.