Notaries in the state of Tennessee will soon be allowed to perform online notarizations for signers nationwide after the state’s legislature overwhelmingly passed online notarization legislation.
The bill authorized Tennessee notaries to perform online notarizations passed in the Tennessee Senate by a 30-0 margin, and in the Tennessee House of Representatives by a 94-0 margin.
The bill now moves to the desk of Gov. Bill Haslam to be signed into law.
Once the bill is signed, Tennessee notaries will join their counterparts in Indiana, Virginia, Texas, and Nevada in being able to perform online notarizations nationwide.
Those states allow their notaries to perform online, remote notarizations, which enable borrowers to sign their mortgage documents from anywhere, via secure video conferencing.
Tennessee becomes the second state to approve online notarization this year. Earlier in the year, Indiana passed its own online notarization bill.
The moves come on the heels of the National Association of Secretaries of State, a group that includes the secretaries of state for all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. territories, adopting nationwide standards for online notarization.
In most states, secretaries of state are the commissioning authority for notaries, thereby giving them the authority to act as a notary.
According to the NASS, the electronic notarization standards can be used as a structure that policymakers and regulators use when developing and implementing remote notarization laws, regulations and guidance.
As with Indiana, Notarize, a digital platform that allows for legal, online document notarization, helped move the bill across the line.
“We’re thrilled Tennessee has voted to allow its notaries to perform notarizations online,” Notarize CEO Pat Kinsel said in a statement.
“We’ve served thousands of transactions for people in Tennessee to date and are excited to welcome Tennessee notaries to the Notarize platform as the law goes into effect,” Kinsel continued. “The best experience occurs when local notaries can serve local transactions and we’re thrilled to give Tennessee notaries to tools to meet their customers online.”
