e-Conveyancing

Attorney Gateway

Korbitec in partnership with FNB recently launched Attorney Gateway … the alternative instruction provider of choice, providing a link between attorneys and FNB. It was introduced to attorneys during the recent National Credit Act Roadshow, where a number of questions were asked and answered.

As an introduction, Attorney Gateway has the following features:

  • Proof of delivery,
  • Error handling at source,
  • Bank/Attorney SLA reporting,
  • Security,
  • Support, and
  • Service availability & redundancy.
As a value proposition it allows for:
  • Single point of contact - same consultant, help desk and company.
  • Error handling at source - less trouble shooting.
  • Hassle-free security - and proof of message delivery.
  • Smooth transition - No disruption.

Questions and Answers



Q. What is Attorney Gateway? - 7 May

A. Attorney Gateway is an FNB approved electronic bond instruction system developed by Korbitec which FNB and FNB panel attorneys will use to send bond instructions and exchange messages.



Q. How will FNB distribute instructions between Attorney Gateway and Lawyers Access Web? - 7 May

A. FNB requires their panel attorneys to sign up with an electronic instruction provider of their choice. Currently the choices are Attorney Gateway and L@W. Although the systems differ FNB does not mind which system the conveyancers use.



Q. What happens (from the bank's perspective) if the instruction to the conveyancer goes through Attorney Gateway? - 7 May

A.First National Bank has made a large investment in the Attorney Gateway solution and has fully integrated it into their existing systems.



Q. When do we expect to be online with any other banks besides FNB? - 17 May

A.This is a difficult question to answer. Negotiations are already at an advanced stage with other financial institutions but most of them are currently focusing on keeping up with their obligations related to the NCA and as a result cannot dedicate their Information Technology resources towards other projects such as Gateway. However as soon as other banks have implemented the necessary development on their side Korbitec will make an announcement to that effect.



Q. How does Attorney Gateway differ from the current system? - 17 May

A. Both systems function in a similar fashion in order to ensure that conveyancers are able to use either system. Attorney Gateway has a host of features that are new to the market such as error handling within GhostConvey; proof of delivery of messages between GhostConvey and the bank; free support and advanced reporting which ensures that all parties see the same data.



Q. Is Attorney Gateway easy to operate? - 17 May

A. Attorney Gateway is directly integrated into GhostConvey and the necessary security features are also built into the GhostConvey software, making it very easy to operate. As Attorney Gateway is seamlessly integrated into GhostConvey a user of GhostConvey would not have to move outside of the program to do anything related to Attorney Gateway.



Q. Can we receive the bank's reports? - 17 May

A. One of the overriding principles when developing Attorney Gateway was to develop a set of reports that both the Bank and the Attorney would look at. While the bank would obviously be able to see reports on a number of attorney firms, the attorney firm will only be able to see the report on its own performance versus the average performance of all the other law firms. Thus the Attorney Gateway seeks to make sure that both the bank and the attorney are "working from the same version of the truth".



Q. How do we receive circulars from FNB? - 17 May

A. In the same way as you did before, for the time being, although we are in discussions with FNB to provide for 'bulletin' messages, which is a way of distributing non-loan specific, general information, to each attorney (and tracking delivery!).



Q. Why should I change to Attorney Gateway? - 17 May

A. Five main reasons:
  1. Single point of contact - You use the same consultant, help desk and company as you use for GhostConvey.
  2. Error handling at source - The technology allows GhostConvey to communicate directly with the Gateway system with the technical equivalent of a handshake. In the same way, uploading a message is similar to hand delivering a parcel - the deliverer always knows whether the message has been accepted. This means that GhostConvey is able to manage any errors that occur, making the process easier for the conveyancer to follow and guaranteeing that no communication goes astray.
  3. Hassle-free security - Security is built in to GhostConvey and is updated in a seamless way. In addition proof of message delivery between the GhostConvey software and the banks system or "end-to-end" proof of delivery is now possible.
  4. Smooth transition - The transition on to Attorney Gateway is specifically designed to reduce disruption to a minimum.
  5. Cost - attorneys are credited with all their NTU's (Not Taken Up) instructions. There are no installation, service, administration, support, training or security certificate costs associated with Attorney Gateway so it is difficult to ignore the cost benefit of this product.



Q. Will the instruction import into GhostConvey automatically, or do I still have to click Send/Receive and then Import/Export? - 17 May

A. Two options are available to the conveyancer. Either the instructions could be automatically imported into GhostConvey when they are sent to the attorney firm, or you could decide to use the Send/Receive button to receive instructions as and when you want to.



Q. Can more than one person in the firm import and export? - 17 May

A. Yes.



Q. Will the consultant at the bank have to capture on a different interface for L@w and AG attorneys? - 10 May

A. No, bank consultants will use the same system for both AG and L@w.
On a technical level, Attorney Gateway uses different technology and FNB has developed a special technical interface for Attorney Gateway. However, from an end-user perspective, Attorney Gateway has been fully integrated into FNB's business systems. FNB's systems will seamlessly instruct via Attorney Gateway or L@w, depending on the preferred electronic instruction provider chosen by the panel attorney.



Q. Will Attorney Gateway be signing up with other banks too? - 5 July

A. Attorney Gateway is actively pursuing increasing the number of financial institutions that it communicates with. Due to the implementation of the National Credit Act there have been insufficient resources on the banks' side to implement new projects, but now that the NCA implementation date has passed, the banks have indicated they are now able to dedicate resources to develop the internal interface that is necessary to implement Attorney Gateway.



Q. Does Korbitec have the capacity to train if we switch to Attorney Gateway? - 5 July

A. Absolutely. The effort required to change to Attorney Gateway is minimal and the changeover has already proved to be remarkably painless. In addition, all the GhostConvey support and training personnel have been cross-trained to allow them to train clients in both GhostConvey and Attorney Gateway. However, it should still be emphasised that, due to the seamless way in which Attorney Gateway is implemented, the training that is required is minimal.



Q. Will FNB have performance standards? - 19 July

A. FNB will measure attorney performance according to the new SLA document recently renewed with panel attorneys. The good news is that GhostConvey will implement the necessary FNB SLA reports in GhostConvey for Attorney Gateway users to measure their own performance.



Attorney Gateway Presentation at National Credit Act Roadshow



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