 | |
| Formation | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA |
| Location | |
Official language | English |
Key people | Matt Barrie, President and CEO; Jackson Elsegood, General Manager; Neil Katz, CFO; Greg Robinson, VP of Compliance; Sebastian Siseles, Marcomms Manager |
| Website | www |
Escrow.com is a privately held internet escrow company. Based in San Francisco, CA, [1] Escrow.com was founded in 1999 by Fidelity National Financial. [2] It was acquired in 2015 by Freelancer.com. [1]
Escrow.com was founded in 1999 by Fidelity National Financial in response to Bank of America's four million dollar purchase a few years earlier of Loans.com. Fidelity decided to liquidate Escrow.com and did so in 2002 in a trade with iLumin for a software license. In 2004, Escrow.com was purchased by a private investor. [3] Currently, the company is owned by Freelancer Technology Pty Limited. [1]
Escrow.com provides internet escrow services for many companies in e-commerce, international trade, online auctions, and online shopping, such as eBay, [4] GoDaddy [5] and AutoTrader. [6] The items that are handled range from domain name sales to high monetary value items such as motor vehicles and heavy equipment/machinery. Escrow.com is a strategic partner with the United States Department of Commerce [7] in support of President Obama’s National Export Initiative.[ citation needed ]
The company has been a guest blogger on ‘Tradeology’ – the official blog of the International Trade Administration [8] as well as a featured writer in various magazines, including the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) News, [9] EXPORT Magazine, [10] and contributed towards having the term ‘Escrow Service' [11] added to the third edition of the Trade Finance Guide, published by The International Trade Administration (ITA).
In 2013 Escrow.com reached an accrued value of over two billion dollars in transaction volume. [12] The company works extensively in an effort to prevent online fraud and is a resource for the Internet Crime Complaint Center, [13] a multi-agency task force made up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C), and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)[ citation needed ]
The escrow company takes the buyer's funds, verifies the deposit to the seller, and transfers the funds to the seller after the buyer receives the merchandise, thus protecting the interests of both the buyer and seller.
| State | License Type | Regulator |
|---|---|---|
| Arizona | Escrow | Arizona Department of Financial Institutions |
| Arkansas | Money Transmitter | Arkansas Securities Department |
| California | Escrow | California Department of Business Oversight |
| Colorado | Money Transmitter | Colorado Division of Banking |
| Georgia | Seller of Payment Instruments | Georgia Department of Banking and Finance - Non-Depository Financial Institutions Division |
| Idaho | Escrow | Idaho Department of Finance |
| Illinois | Money Transmitter | Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation |
| Iowa | Money Transmitter | Iowa Division of Banking |
| Kansas | Money Transmitter | Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner |
| Maine | Money Transmitter | Department of Professional & Financial Regulation - Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection |
| Mississippi | Money Transmitter | Mississippi Department of Banking and Consumer Finance |
| Missouri | Sale of Checks | Missouri Division of Finance |
| Montana | Escrow | Montana Division of Banking and Financial Institutions |
| Nebraska | Money Transmitter | Nebraska Department of Banking & Finance |
| New Hampshire | Money Transmitter | State of New Hampshire Banking Department - Consumer Credit Division |
| New Mexico | Escrow | New Mexico Financial Institutions Division |
| North Carolina | Money Transmitter | North Carolina Office of the Commissioner of Banks |
| North Dakota | Money Transmitter | North Dakota Department of Financial Institutions - Consumer Division |
| Ohio | Money Transmitter | Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Financial Institutions |
| Oklahoma | Money Transmitter | Oklahoma Banking Department |
| South Dakota | Money Transmitter | South Dakota Division of Banking |
| Texas | Money Transmitter | Texas Department of Banking |
| Washington | Escrow | Washington Department of Financial Institutions |
| West Virginia | Money Transmitter | West Virginia Division of Banking |
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An escrow is a contractual arrangement in which a third party receives and disburses money or property for the primary transacting parties, with the disbursement dependent on conditions agreed to by the transacting parties. Examples include an account established by a broker for holding funds on behalf of the broker's principal or some other person until the consummation or termination of a transaction; or, a trust account held in the borrower's name to pay obligations such as property taxes and insurance premiums. The word derives from the Old French word escroue, meaning a scrap of paper or a scroll of parchment; this indicated the deed that a third party held until a transaction was completed.
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