Figure Technologies announced that it has sold digital mortgages to an asset management giant using blockchain technology, a first-of-its-kind transaction the firm said reduces the time, risks and costs associated with traditional loan sales.
Figure originated and sold its eNote mortgages to asset management giant Apollo through the Provenance Blockchain marketplace, a public blockchain that Figure helped create. The assets are in the form of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, and Apollo purchased the undisclosed volume of loans via a digital currency.
Figure registered its mortgages through its own lien and eNote registry system, Digital Asset Registration Technologies, or DART, the company’s alternative to MERS databases. The combined registry and blockchain technologies offer immediate and automated asset management, it claims.
DART and the Provenance Blockchain eliminate the need for duplicative registration of a loan in multiple MERS databases, according to Figure, and averts slow, risky trilateral settlements between originators, warehouse banks and investors.
“Blockchain can provide enhanced protections and transparency in the ownership process for consumers and real-time settlement for investors, replacing trust with truth to create a faster, more efficient process for everyone,” said Daniel Wallace, general manager of Figure Lending, in a press release.
Figure will service the loans, a spokesperson said.
San Francisco-based Figure was founded in 2018 by SoFi founder Mike Cagney and develops blockchain-based financial services, offering home loans, student loan refinancing and personal loans. The company is also in the midst of a
The transaction is the latest introduction of blockchain in the mortgage business, as industry players
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified ownership of the Provenance Blockchain and incorrectly identified the location of Figure's headquarters. It has been updated and corrected.
