Are we required to keep an original executed mortgage in Oklahoma? In this day and age of electronic recording I'm not sure anymore if we are required to retain the original executed mortgage in our files. Your help would be appreciated.

You do not have to retain the original of any document. These may be retained electronically and are accepted into evidence in Oklahoma and federal courts. The only issue would be if there is a claim that a signature is forged since a handwriting expert not be able to form an opinion as to whether the signature is genuine. but for the vast majority of documents, the risk is minimal. The county clerk where the mortgage is filed can provided a certified copy if needed. On the other hand if you are selling the mortgage to the secondary market, the investor may refuse purchase, so you will need to take that into consideration.

Thank you for the quick reply. That helps a lot.

Are these loans being pledged to the Federal Home Loan Bank? If so, it was my understanding that "wet" signatures must be kept available for the duration of the loan.

If my understanding is incorrect, please let me know.

I used to do FHLB collateral audits and the requirement used to be: The original note and subsequent note modifications as well as a copy of the recorded mortgage must be maintained at all times in the possession or control of the shareholder.

I am pretty sure that has not changed, but each FHLB used to also have a resource guide that should be available to shareholders that participate in their loan collateral program.

You are right Randy - at least for the FHLB office assigned to us. Not sure this is still true of all FHLB locations, at least from what I'm being told.