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Digital Surety Bonds
By: Michael Weisbrot
Electronic bonding is the way of the future for the surety bond industry. Filing
a surety bond electronically will allow agencies to issue a bond and the
principals to obtain their bond in a shorter period of time. However, I think
the use and integration of such a system is still a long ways off.
The technology is available, as well as the desire for such a system. What is
holding the industry back? There are two major factors that keeps digital
bonding from becoming a reality.
* Lack of organization of the sureties to create a standard for such a system.
* Acceptance of digital bonds by the obligees.
The bonding companies must get together to create this system. A handful of the
largest sureties would be able to get other bonding companies to jump on the
band wagon a lot easier than several bonding agencies. The sureties also have
the financial backing to fund the project as well as the financial interest in
it, as it should help all sureties to run more efficiently.
The second largest hurdle would be getting the obligees to accept a digital bond
rather than a paper copy. In general, obligees are very stuck in their way doing
things. When it comes to a state department, no one really wants to rock the
boat and make any radical changes to the way things are done. I suppose they are
afraid of any backlash of their suggestions.
The ICC accepts electronically filed surety bonds. To my knowledge, the ICC and
DOT are the only obligees that accept electronic bonds. However, it is not a
standardized system and creating a different system for each obligee would
result in chaos and failure in the development of the standardization.
The first step is to have the system created, followed by the acceptance of it.
As far as I know there is no committee on development of it, thus we will be
waiting quite some time prior to seeing a standardized fully functional system
in place.
About the Author:
Michael Weisbrot is Vice-President of JW Bond Consultants, Inc. and is head of
martketing and IT. He has a degree in computer science and is dedicated to
bringing suretyship into the new millenium.http://www.jwsuretybonds.com |