County Recorders vs. The MERS Machine

摘要

For Nancy J. Becker, recorder of deeds in Montgomery County, Pa., outside Phila delphia, property records are practically sacred. So much so that her office keeps digital copies of land records dating to 1784 on four separate databases, includ ing one 1,700 miles away. If the county seat were leveled tomorrow, she says, "I could still record documents on my laptop on the street corner with a card table." Becker may sound tech-sawy, but to some of her constituents' dismay, she can't always call up a property with a keystroke and see who holds its note. That's because more than 200,000 of her records list the lien holder as MERS, the private company that acts as a proxy for banks that bundle and sell off mort gage securities. That can make it all but impossible for a recorder to determine who really holds the paper.