Figure invites lenders to use its DART system, a competitor of MERS

Figure Technology Solutions, an umbrella company for Figure Lending LLC, is opening the door for retail and wholesale lenders to begin using its DART system, a lien and eNote registry service, it announced Thursday. 

This pushes the company into direct competition with an already existing mortgage electronic registration system known as MERS owned by ICE Mortgage Technology.

DART, or Digital Asset Registration Technologies, can be used to originate, pledge and sell HELOC loans, Figure said. The company promised other lending products will soon be available to partners.

FTS claims the platform, which runs on blockchain technology, is a "streamlined and markedly efficient alternative to manual assignments and conventional loan tracking databases."  California-based Synergy One Lending is the first retail lender to jump on board and register loans using this technology, Figure said.

"Offering DART to our partners represents a transformative opportunity in the mortgage industry, helping to usher in an era of digitization and expedited transactional processing," said
Jackie Frommer, president of Figure Technology Solutions, in a press release Thursday. "We believe that expanding the use of DART technology through our partners will not only increase safeguards and transparency, but also foster a faster and more efficient process that benefits all stakeholders."

Figure Technologies in March 2022 used the DART system to register its own loans and then sold them to asset management giant Apollo through the Provenance Blockchain marketplace, a public blockchain that Figure helped create.

"Blockchain can provide enhanced protections and transparency in the ownership process for consumers and real-time settlement for investors, replacing trust with truth to create a faster, more efficient process for everyone," a Figure executive said at the time commenting on the transaction.

In the midst of building out its technology offerings for the mortgage industry, FTS is also pushing to go public.

It has submitted a "draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), relating to the proposed initial public offering of its equity securities," the company announced March 27. This form is required for registering companies that want to be listed on a national exchange.

Thus far, no determination has been made regarding the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the IPO. The listing is subject to market conditions as well as the completion of the SEC's review process, the company said.

Figure Technologies announced it was shifting its lending arm under a stand-alone company, which would function independently just one week prior.

Companies tapped to take FTS public include Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Jefferies Financial Group Inc, a Bloomberg report pointed out. Valuation of the company will likely range between $2 billion to $3 billion.