Why Do You Need Two Background Checks as a Notary Signing Agent? Loan Signing System x NNA Interview

If you are researching, become a notary public loan signing agent, you're going to want to watch this video because my bet is you somewhere have heard I have to get a background check. As you can see, I'm here at the National Notary association, actually, at the conference with. Introduce yourself.

Hello, I'm Susie Supkov. I'm product manager at the National Notary Association. I've been there with them for 19 years. So I've been all over the place, and I'm excited about everything that we do to help notaries.

And I'm Chris Ballas with backgrounds online, the CEO, and I've been with the company for 23 years.

And so Background Online is the background company for the NNA certification or when you're becoming NNA certified. So we're behind the scenes, the only way loan signing system can bring to you. But guys, let's talk about some really big questions early on, signing agents have. Okay, so I'm gonna start with you, Susie. You know, the biggest thing I get from signing agents researching or people researching become signing agents is. Well, Mark, I'm confused why I have to get another background check. Because in order to become a notary, I had to get a background check. Why don't you take that away to let people know why you have to do a background check every year, even between your commission dates?

Okay. SPW Signing Professionals Work Group is a group of financial institutions that got together after the big crash in 2008 to up the ante when it came to how they legitimize and make sure that our signing agents that are out there working for them are competent and also safe. So they decided to require the yearly background screening as a way of just making sure that all those files are updated to make sure that all the notaries are screened before sending them out and contracting them for jobs.

So a lot of the big title companies and lenders in this country got together and said, hey, we want to make sure that even between the expiring commissions, that they're always not getting felonies and they're always up to date. That includes Fidelity Title, Wells Fargo, bank of America, Boston, National Title Groups.

I just know that as a consumer, if somebody's coming into my home.

That's right.

You know, I want them checked out yesterday.

Literally. Right. The NNA uses Backgrounds Online. So we're here with Chris. And so, man, to my community, I say, essentially, your state background checks are looking for criminal activity, more or less. And then the Background Online is looking for some of the more Nuanced requirements that the SPW is looking for.

I did have actually a question you mentioned. You know, a lot of them have been screened even before this process, to just become notaries. So a lot of states do require some kind of background check. I get that question a lot. How does that commission background screening different Is different from the.

Yeah, so California is a good example that goes through the doj. It's basically when the states do a background check, it's through like an FBI database, nci. So it's like a separate database. And what we do is we run a Social Security trace, verify the information the applicant or the notary has given us. From there, we get a list of jurisdictions that may have been associated with them through public records, property records, things like that. Kind of gives you a little footprint of where somebody's lived or worked or what have you. Then from there, we do criminal searches in those jurisdictions. And then we run a federal criminal database search through the PACER system. We do a national criminal database. So we run a suite of criminal searches, a sex offender registry, and then we also do the motor vehicle. So ours is a little bit different. Ours background check is different in theory because we're running various sources to aggregate all this data.

Great.

And there can be records that we find that they might not have NCIC or, you know, DOJ background checks. They'll have arrest records. We don't score against arrest records, only convictions.

Okay.

So the background check, if there's a conviction and it's within the reporting restrictions for that state, then we score against that. If it's outside of that, then we don't. And it is not included in the background yet.

I think the first thing I'd like you to discuss is just kind of the point system examples of, you know, a speeding ticket equals X and kind of break it down for people watching.

Yeah. The SPW created the scorecard. And the idea being that people are going to have offenses, you're going to have a speeding ticket, you might have reckless driving or passing on the side of a road or something like that. The SPW created the scorecard. And the idea being that people are going to have offenses, you're going to have a speeding ticket, you might have reckless driving or passing on the side of a road or something like that. And so based off the severity, they've set up the point system. And then what we do is we do the background check and we take and adjudicate the results. And based off of that, it's, I had a speeding ticket that's 2 points or I had a DUI, which is 20 points, which is not, does not. You still meet the requirements.

Got it.

So it's the aggregate of the score and depending on the severity of the offense, obviously felonies are scored a lot higher. Misdemeanors, you could have a misdemeanor and still be in the signing agent program.

So you can have up to 25. Is we telling everyone on the Internet that is the number right now as of 2023.

And that information is available online and somebody can take a look at that and say, I have a speeding ticket between 2 to 5 miles an hour. That is X people know usually what's on their record. I think a great subject is our thing to talk about would be the length of the background check. You know, there are situations where someone's like, well I've had speeding tickets, but when were they. So typically the background check is done from a seven year standpoint. It's either seven to ten years. The motor vehicle piece is typically seven years. In certain states we can go back as far as 10 years and that's a requirement of the SPW. But there are states like California and Colorado that are seven year states where we only go back seven years for the criminal side of it. Over the last 10, 12 years of doing the background checks with the NNA, the majority of the offenses that we're scoring are motor vehicle. A lot of the notaries do not have criminal records. They've already gone through some type of vetting process through the state and they are professionals that are doing an outstanding job. So if people are looking at their background check, typically it's a motor vehicle offense here or there or a low level misdemeanor.

And so I think it's good to reiterate because I get all the time, like, Mark, what's a speeding ticket have to do with me being a good notary or me being passing a background? And the answer really isn't for us to say, it's for the SPW to say because they're the ones who created the guidelines. And so you were just following what the guidelines they set.

The notary community overall has a outstanding record on the background check. I mean, I think it's upwards of, you know, 99% of the people meet the requirements. So the people that don't, it's a very, very small percentage. Our goal is to really educate them. They can call our support team, understand what the offenses were and how they were scored and then also how long they're still reportable. You might have a speeding ticket or something that was just right on the edge of the SPW scoring and next year it's going to fall off. So that change can happen too. And I think it's just really important for people to understand and know what's on their background check. So it's a great opportunity for them to see that and then to interface with our team to better understand the results.

My couple takeaways is, you know, because you have the list down below in the comments that you can kind of do like a little pre background check yourself. And then number two is just do the background check and you'll kind of know then if something was supposed to be expunged or you didn't pay a fine. That could be. It's like very easy steps to kind of get to the next place. And the fact that 99% of people more or less, is absolutely incredible. Let's talk about the dispute process, because I know the NNA gets a brunt of those. What is the appropriate way to go through anything that they feel is not accurate?

Yeah, that's a great point. So there's two things. There is the dispute process, which is actually the process in which if somebody gets their background check back and they feel that something not reportable. Many times people go to court or they have an attorney and they said, oh, this was supposed to drop off or I paid my fine and this wasn't supposed to be reportable. We go to the sources at the court through the motor vehicle department and we run the searches and the results come back. We score the background check and then the notary gets an opportunity to see that. And based off their score, if there is information on there that they feel is inaccurate, we will do a reinvestigation of the background check at that source. Then from there we will communicate with the notary what we found. This is still reportable. You know, check with a dmv, reach out to the attorney that you worked with that helped you with this. If the case for some reason was reported in error, a court clerk made a mistake, or some information was wrong at the courthouse, we would remove that information and rescore the background check. So that's the dispute process.

Okay, real quick. So the dispute process is they contact you. They contact not someone from the nna.

Yeah, because we are the consumer reporting agency that's actually building this report.

Got it.

So we interface with the notary. We have a great support team that can answer any questions that people have. And we received several customer service Calls about this process. The appeal process is through the NNA where if somebody doesn't meet the requirements, they have the option to say, hey, here's the context in which this happened, and the NNA will review that and talk to them about it and see if an exception can be made.

Well, that's really interesting. I didn't realize there was like, kind of a secondary appeal with the nna. So if someone has a secondary appeal with you, kind of talk through the process they would take.

They would basically just call customer care, say that they have an appeal, and then get them connected to the right people.

They standardize the process for background checks as opposed to individual companies having different requirements. And so they really kind of set the industry standard. So I think they've done a great job. And the. The suite of criminal searches that we run is the industry standard that you would run on any employee. Any employment background check most companies would run. And the same thing, by doing it annually, that's really becoming the norm where companies are screening their employees annually. If it's Uber drivers or, you know, notary public loan signing agents, it's becoming pretty much the standard to do it on an annual basis.

Got it, Got it. In conclusion, Suzy, anything from you?

I loved what you said at the very end there. You know, just the idea that this has become a yearly requirement in a lot of professions. And again, we're wanting to elevate the office of notary public and make sure that, you know, we are professionals in what we do, and that's an important part of it. So thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

And to your point, man, every industry has yearly background checks, are moving towards yearly background checks. So any final words kind of on background? Anybody who might be watching, thinking about should they get background checked, and they should be nervous. It's kind of. Any final thoughts from you, man, since you.

Yeah, I think it's. I think it's very important for notaries to get their background check, see what's on there, understand it. Don't play the scorecard in your head.

Yes.

Go through the process. And then if there is something that they don't understand, our team's there to answer any questions. We're a consumer reporting agency. This is what we do. And our relationship and our partnership with the nna, we speak to tons of notaries, and we love going to these conferences and have an opportunity to meet the notaries as we're doing their background check. And some of them, we've been doing their background check for years. It's a great partnership and I encourage everyone to run their background check.

For sure.

We're glad to have you here this year again.

Thank you very much.

And I'd like to thank Susie. Thank you so much. Thank you to the nna. Thank you, man, Chris, for jumping on here. I kind of. Chris is like, I found out 10 minutes ago we're doing this. So I appreciate you, Susie, and an A we love you alone signing system. So thank you from the bottom of my heart. We're always here to support you on your journey. And like always, if you like this channel, like anything in this tips and tricks, please don't hesitate to subscribe.