OLYMPIA, Wash. and SAN ANTONIO, March 10, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- In an announcement at the National Conference of the Independent Community Bankers of America meeting in San Antonio, Enhanced Technology Financial Services, Inc. of Olympia WA unveiled an extension of its industry-leading OSCAR consumer lending services for use by banks seeking to convert consumer lending opportunities into fee income.
"OSCAR FASTPass is designed for banks that have no desire to book consumer loans but need to meet their customers' loan expectations. They're able to protect their customers from encroachment by others while earning fee income," explained R. W. Christensen, Jr., ET's CEO. "With OSCAR FASTPass ET will originate, fund and service the loan on a seamless, private label basis from within the branch, on the phone or the bank's website. We'll fund the loan elsewhere, protect the existing customer relationship and pay fee income to the originating bank."
"We describe this as the 'cake and eat it, too' model," said Darcy Huffman, Vice President-Client Development. "OSCAR FASTPass is the perfect answer for banks with one of two goals: For a bank that is absolutely convinced that there's no money in consumer lending, OSCAR FASTPass allows it to keep its beliefs while turning the loans that they do see into fee income. There's no expense, no credit or asset risk, only income. For banks where their business models do not encourage consumer loans, this new service allows them to have as much or little involvement in the process as they wish, but without balance sheet exposure. In either case, the customer stays with the originating bank and isn't going to be cross-sold down the road by a credit union, money center bank, or local competitor."
OSCAR FASTPasss is priced so a bank that originates as few as one consumer loan a month can make money while improving customer satisfaction and loyalty.
ET announced in October its guarantee that banks using its flagship OSCAR product will increase total net earnings by at least 20%. While the 20% earnings guarantee will not attach to the OSCAR FASTPass product, the company's complete satisfaction guarantee will continue to apply to all of ET's services, including the new OSCAR FASTPass.
ET Financial Services is the subject of the cover story in the current special Community Banking edition of American Banker.
About Enhanced Technology Financial Services, Inc.
ET Originates, Services, Collects, and Reports on private label consumer loans for community and mid-sized banks using its proprietary OSCAR system and team. ET guarantees that its client banks will increase total net income by at least 20% when they use OSCAR. By combining ET's risk-related pricing and best-in-industry servicing, ET's client banks can generate higher margins and more volume with lower risk and less volatility, simultaneously. Headquartered in Olympia, Washington, ET markets its services to banks with assets of up to $20 billion.