EGG HARBOR CITY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

National Credit-reporting System, Inc. (NCS), a full-service consumer reporting agency specializing in income, identity, and credit intelligence, announced today that it has partnered with eSignSystems, a division of Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX), to provide a full suite of eSigning, eDelivery, and eVaulting solutions.

The move by NCS anticipates the IRS' January 7 acceptance of electronic signatures on 4506-T forms, which are used by lenders, insurers, and healthcare firms to obtain tax transcripts for consumer and business income verification. In addition to allowing lending customers who use the company's TRV (R) Services to move the signing and management of their loan origination documents online, the solution will open the door for NCS to serve customers in other sectors, such as insurance and healthcare.

This final eSigning advancement, however, will have immediate impact for NCS' mortgage origination clients, for whom the IRS acceptance of eSigned 4506-T forms completes the last technical milestone in eSigning acceptance on conventional loan origination. For the lender and investor it means a more compliant, auditable disclosure process, and offers an uncomplicated path to meet the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regulations for new mortgage disclosures.

The integration of eSignSystems' SmartSAFE™ will allow NCS clients to create their own branded SigningRooms within the NCS web portal, providing "one-stop shopping" for the NCS customer, from eSigning to submission of the 4506-T.

"We chose eSignSystems for many reasons, including their lengthy track record, technology, ‘go to market' speed, existing LOS integrations, and their penetration into mortgage and insurance markets,” said NCS Executive Vice President Curtis Knuth. "eSignSystems also affords NCS the option to place the entire platform behind our firewall, providing a true SaaS solution, which was very important to us.”

"NCS is being very forward-thinking, as electronically signed documents offer not only convenience and cost-savings, but eDocuments promote greater integrity of the document management process with a full electronic audit trail," said Kelly Purcell, eSignSystems' Executive Vice President. "By choosing a comprehensive solution rather than building their system, NCS is now first to the market with an open strategy that provides a lot of options for their customers. SmartSAFE offers a proven IVES technology backbone, making it easy to aggregate all eSigned 4506-Ts and provides a unified audit, storage, and reporting platform—from eSigning through the entire electronic document lifecycle.”

NCS' web portal will continue to provide the option to submit a physically signed or “wet” signed 4506-T. This was an important requirement for NCS clients as they moved through obtaining consent from internal stakeholders on implementation of electronic signature in their workflow. Additionally, for NCS clients and prospective clients utilizing an existing eSignature solution, the eSignSystems solution provides for simplistic and secure integration to NCS for the processing of 4506-T forms.

NCS has been a leading participant in the IRS Income Verification Express System (IVES) program and previous program generations for almost 20 years, the longest of any nationwide provider of the solution. It has positioned itself as an advocate for the industries it serves and has historically sought to provide guidance to the governmental agencies with which it works. The IRS places specific obligations on IVES vendors handling eSigned 4506-Ts to warrant the validity of all eSigned documents, both in terms of the eSigning ceremony and document tamper detection, for a period of two years.

SmartSAFE supports and complies with all recently published IRS guidelines allowing electronic signatures on conventional mortgage origination documents as well as 4506-T and 4506-T-EZ, and supports FHA loans that still require some "wet" signed documents.

The NCS and eSignSystems solution was built in tandem with the IRS regulations, as both companies provided leadership in their position of advocacy to the IRS on eSignature deployment. NCS SVP Cecil Bowman, a 35-year veteran of IRS eServices development, served as Chair of the Mortgage Banking Association (MBA) 4506-T workgroup, while both NCS and eSignSystems were participants in the ResTech IRS workgroup. As recognition for their industry leadership, Bowman and Purcell of eSignSystems won Mortgage Banker Magazine 2012 Tech All-Star Awards.

"NCS is now positioned to better serve lenders and provide 4506-T processing to financial services companies in areas such as mortgage, healthcare, and insurance," added Knuth. "Our customers will get all the benefits with minimal upfront costs."

For more information, call NCS at 800-582-7066, email [email protected], or visit ncstrv.com/eSignature. For more information on eSignSystems products and services, visit www.esignsystems.com.

About NCS

National Credit-reporting System, Inc. (NCS), founded in 1978, is a full-service, consumer-reporting agency specializing in income, identity, and credit intelligence. NCS provides cutting-edge, superior quality, data-driven solutions that enable its clients to meet compliance requirements and minimize risk. In 1994, NCS became the nation's first company to 4506-T solutions nationwide. Visit www.ncstrv.com or call 800-582-7066.

About eSignSystems

eSignSystems, a division of Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX), is a leading provider of lifecycle management of electronically signed, legally binding documents, contracts and digital transactions. SmartSAFE enables companies to manage business processes and transactions entirely online. Organizations can address certain regulatory compliance issues, improve productivity and efficiency in processing transactions, and achieve significant cost savings through the elimination of document transportation costs, processing and storage. For more information, visit www.esignsystems.com.