Wells Fargo Completes SISAC Accreditation Process

Significant Step Increases Mortgage Transaction Security

The Secure Identity Services Accreditation Corporation (SISAC), a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), today announced that Wells Secure, a division of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC), has completed its SISAC accreditation process, a significant step towards increasing mortgage transaction security. Wells Secure joins four other entities that have completed SISAC's accreditation process including eValid8 Corporation, Innov8IT, LLC, the longstanding accredited issuer, VeriSign, Inc., and ChosenSecurity, Inc. in partnership with the National Notary Association (NNA).

'It's wonderful to see that prominent industry companies like Wells Fargo see the immense value that information security accreditation brings to their business and are taking the necessary steps to meet industry standards,' said Robert E. Story Jr., MBA's Vice Chairman and Chair of MBA's Board of Directors Technology (BoDTech) committee. 'We're particularly glad to see that companies are continuing to invest in technology and vital initiatives such as information security even during these challenging times.'

SISAC was created four years ago by MBA to accredit and certify secure online identity providers. This accreditation structure allows individual firms to establish various levels of 'plug and play' identity within the context of secure eCommerce transactions for use over unsecured networks, such as the Internet.

SISAC addresses three essential missions for the industry:

Educate and promote the use of secure identity within commercial and residential real estate finance
Create the necessary infrastructure for accrediting third parties providing secure identity products and services, such as technical, auditing and insurance solutions
Leverage identity management best practices to establish open standards for trust in the mortgage industry

'Wells Fargo recognizes the risk mitigation value that strong authentication provides within the electronic processes for both the enterprise and external partners,' said Chris Burckhardt, Chair of MBA's Residential Technology (ResTech) committee. 'MBA encourages more lenders to seek SISAC accreditation so their proactive efforts to protect the personal identifiable information of their customers can be acknowledged.'

As America's mortgage industry moves toward an electronic rather than paper-based paradigm, MBA intends to set mortgage industry standards for secure identity and to provide the platform for industry-wide eCommerce that will benefit all participants. Open access and standards is the motivating force behind MBA's efforts to establish data security, digital signature, and encryption recommendations.

As secure identity solutions continue to gain adoption in the mortgage industry, it is important for MBA to encourage their open development and to embrace open standards available to all industry participants in mortgage transactions. Openly developed secure identity will increase interoperability between all trading partners and facilitate faster migration to safer electronic transactions and eMortgages for all sectors of the mortgage industry- residential and commercial, origination and servicing, lender and vendor. Ultimately, the interaction between users of accredited online identity solutions will realize increased efficiencies and new business opportunities.

For further information on mortgage security standards and SISAC, visit www.sisac.org.