Fastkey Technology

Join Len Lane, Founder of Brokers for Life, as he sits down with Dave Ford from Fastkey Technology to discuss a groundbreaking tool transforming background and financial screening. With increasing complexities from the CRA in document verification and the rising risks of fraud, Fastkey steps in to simplify and secure the mortgage documentation process.

Len and Dave dive into how Fastkey provides brokers with direct access to CRA documents, ensuring authenticity and reducing fraud threats. Plus, with seamless integration into platforms like Velocity, Fastkey offers a more efficient experience for both brokers and lenders, making the process smoother for clients.

About Dave Ford

Dave Ford is the Lender Relationship Manager at Fastkey Technology, a cutting-edge company that provides mortgage brokers and lenders with secure and reliable access to CRA documents. With a background in financial technology, Dave is passionate about leveraging innovative tools to enhance the mortgage process, reduce fraud risks, and improve efficiency in the lending industry.

Resources discussed in this episode:

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Contact Len Lane | Brokers for Life:

Contact Dave Ford:

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Transcript:

Len 00:02

Lane, welcome. My name is Len Lane, and I am the founder and president of Brokers for Life Inc, and we are Dominion Lending Centers in Western Canada. The topic of our podcast will be about what we consider to be Real Life Mortgage Solutions.

Len 00:19

Welcome back. At the end of season one, we talked about technology, and that technology that we use on a regular basis is called Velocity. A long conversation with Heather about that, but today we’re going to talk about some new technology that’s just come on the market in the last few months. For many years, we we struggled with getting documents from clients, but a company that’s called Fastkey Technology that has come back and helped us, especially with the CRA portion. My guest today is Dave Ford, and he is the lender relationship manager for Fastkey Technology.

Dave 00:51

Morning, Len, thanks for having me.

Len 00:54

Glad you can be here today. CRA documents have been an issue over the years. People seem to not keep them for some reason, I’m not sure why, and/or they don’t have access to proper access to CRA, or they were doing it through their accountant. So, let’s take maybe a step back and say, look at so, what was going on before? We had several companies that were allowing us access to CRA documents, and of course, CRA eventually shut that down. So, what was that difference that they were doing the way that compared to what you guys are doing?

Dave 01:27

So, my understanding is that the companies that were in this space before ultimately were using the accountant route. So, there’s, you know, accounting documents and accounting process and procedures, as well as accounting software that you know, it’s very easy to use and it can provide you instant access and just with the kind of the stroke of a pen right, one form signed and, and it’s all done. So, what CRA deemed as not allowed, essentially, is just that these CRA document retrieval companies weren’t actually doing any accounting, any accounting services, ultimately, so they were, you know, essentially using the accounting software forms everything to do with an accountant, but not actually filing any taxes. And my understanding is that E-file, you know, goes through a rigorous screening process of all users on an annualized basis. And you know, when they see 1000s of tax documents pulled, which these companies were like, they were great companies. They, you know, the end result was, was awesome, and I know that, you know their hearts were in the right place. But CRA said, Well, you know you are not an accountant to doing accounting business like, no, I’m sorry, but your license is revoked. So, you know there has always been a different method. And you know, ultimately, accountants can still get tax documents for applicants. So, you know, that’s still good, but only if they’re actually accountants, doing accounting business. So, that’s my understanding of what happened with these prior companies.

Len 03:10

Right? And in some cases, it was almost like they were giving the mortgage broker permission to get those documents. Am I right?

Dave 03:18

Ya know, I’m not sure. You know. I do know, you know, I used a couple of the companies a few times. Ultimately, you know, I just, I saw the accounting authorization form, because they were, you know, promoted and just around in the industry. I really, I honestly didn’t see any issues with it, from my perspective, wearing a broker hat. I just thought, wow. Like, we can get authentic documents, and you can turn it around quickly, like, this is awesome. This is a great service, right? So.

Len 03:49

Yeah, and it was, don’t get me wrong, there were some of our agents who used that pretty much on every file. Yeah, you know, it’s like, it was quick, it was easy, it saved the client trying to find them. And, you know, you had them in a matter of a day, if that, right? So. What is it that Fastkey is doing differently, that CRA is now allowing it again through you?

Dave 04:13

Yeah, well, so, I would like to point out that it’s not that they are allowing it and weren’t before. This is a, you know, this is not the accounting method. So, you know, accountants still have that accounting method, because that was always made for accountants. CRA does have this, like a separate avenue where you can assign an authorized representative to your account, and that authorized representative could have just different forms of access. So, you know, an accountant would have level two access. They can make changes to your taxes. They can file taxes for you, you know, and that’s what that permission is for. Level one access is online access, read-only access, where that authorized representative is simply retrieving, you know, your documents, or logging in, giving you information about the account, if there’s taxes owing, or what’s…