IMM Adds 125 New Banks to Date in 2020, Pandemic Fuels Surge in eSignature Adoption

IMM, the only eSignature provider that specializes in eSignature and digital transaction solutions exclusively for financial institutions, today announced that so far in 2020 more than 125 banks have adopted IMM eSign, the company’s premier eSignature platform, to provide customers with a more engaging, digital banking experience in response to rapidly changing expectations and safety concerns. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, customer demand to complete financial transactions and documents in a remote environment has rapidly increased, and eSignatures have quickly become a top technology priority for banks across the nation.

According to IMM, eSignatures have experienced a significant rise in adoption over the past few years as the banking industry placed increased emphasis on developing digital transformation strategies. However, with the pandemic, eSignatures are now playing an even larger and more significant role, enabling banks to move banking transactions forward overcoming social distancing challenges. The new client banks will leverage IMM’s eSignature platform in conjunction with their existing core banking systems from financial software providers such as Fiserv, CSI, Finastra, and FIS, as well as systems used in other departments across the bank. Since IMM’s solutions automatically indexes eSigned documents with the keywords needed to seamlessly archive the documents into a bank’s Imaging/ECM system, the product is creating a comprehensive, end-to-end digital transaction lifecycle for the bank and their customers.

“COVID-19 severely accelerated the need to have digital transaction management. It has never been more important to be able to move traditional, paper-based processes from a physical perspective, and provide those in a digital sense,” said Drew McMonigle, Director, Process Improvement, CrossFirst Bank. “Decline in branch visits and ATM transactions, an increased focus on ’touchless’ interactions and payments, as well as the rapid operational migration to ’Work-from-Home’ transitioned eSignatures from a nice-to-have, convenient solution, to a critical tool every bank must have to empower their customers to process daily transactions.”

IMM reported the most frequent usage of eSignatures has been with new account opening and new loan origination and closing processes. The Payroll Protection Program (PPP) also drove a dramatic rise in eSignature requirements. Banks are also leveraging eSignatures to enable daily account service and maintenance transactions such as address changes, name changes, stop payment requests, wire transfer requests and credit card disputes. With IMM eSign, banks can convert these traditional paper-based account service or maintenance forms to electronic, fillable forms available directly from the institution’s website or mobile app, enabling customers to complete, sign and submit the service or maintenance request in a self-service, on-demand basis.

“Thankfully, we had deployed IMM’s eSignature platform prior to the pandemic,” said Mike Putnam, Vice President Information Technology, TrailWest Bank. “The usage of remote transactions skyrocketed with the advent of PPP, and I was proud to be able to help so many small businesses. We processed 99% of our loans in a remote environment leveraging eSignatures. While other banks were scrambling, we’re able to have a tremendous impact on our community during this difficult time.”

Powering millions of end-to-end digital transactions each month, IMM eSign seamlessly interfaces with existing business systems in use across the bank to optimize back-office operations and provide a more dynamic and engaging customer experience. IMM is the only eSignature provider that specializes in eSignature and Digital Transaction solutions exclusively for financial institutions

IMM’s Vice President of Markets and Strategy Michael Ball, said, “eSignatures have now moved from a convenience offering to a banking infrastructure necessity. The pandemic has most likely forever changed how our society will work and interact with others as well as how we conduct personal financial activities. COVID-19 has defined a new need for banking customers to be able to conduct banking business, open new accounts, obtain new loans or modify/extend existing loans while avoiding traditional in-person contact and interaction with bank staff. eSignatures allow the continuance of normal banking activities in a secure environment while protecting the safety of both the customer as well as the bank employee.”