OLYMPIA, Wash., Jan. 5, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- ET Financial Services announced today the expansion of OSCAR, its powerful loan origination, funding and servicing outsource tool, into the second mortgage and home equity lines of credit (HELOC) markets.
"With OSCAR, community banks and mortgage bankers can accept, approve, document and fund HELOCs and second mortgages in as little as ten minutes and at one-quarter the cost of existing approaches," said Darcy Huffman, ET's Vice President-Marketing. "Customers expect rapid responses. That's one of the key ways they define 'good service.' A year from now, any lender who can't offer real-time approvals and funding will be operating at a handicap."
"We've spent months evaluating OSCAR. It's just about brilliant," observed Rob Dwyer, Senior Vice President of First Keystone Bank, Media, PA (Nasdaq:FKFS). "We looked at the alternatives and none come close for ease of use, flexibility and elegance, not to mention its cost-effectiveness. OSCAR does it all: the approval, pricing, documentation, funding, reporting. We're very excited."
OSCAR can accept electronic or manual applications in a banker's office or through the Internet. Typically in less than one minute, OSCAR will pull a tri-merge credit report, an AVM property valuation and a lien position report; integrate the hundreds of data points; and decision and price the loan or line in accordance with the banker's standards, whether for portfolio or secondary sale. In less than ten minutes OSCAR can document the loan, fund it, and report on the quantity and quality of the loans it produces. If ET services the resulting portfolio, all the actual loan performance data is integrated with the origination information, creating a powerful feedback loop for loan quality and pricing purposes, as well as for follow on marketing.
"This will speed and improve HELOC and second mortgage decisions markedly. In addition to fast and efficient, OSCAR provides the decision makers with a great deal of information. Bankers, investors and regulators have increasing interest in loan quality and the underlying risks and information that supports the credit decision," added R. W. Christensen, Jr., President of ET. "With OSCAR, bankers have a very powerful information tool to either answer a question or even prevent a question from being raised in the first place.
"Mortgage bankers operating in a broker environment, where production is subject to the old 20-80 rule, will find OSCAR particularly valuable and useful when determining who deserves their attention," he added.
About Enhanced Technology Financial Services, Inc.
ET Originates, Services, Collects, and Reports on private label consumer loans for community banks and mortgage bankers using its proprietary OSCAR system and team. 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's client banks range in asset size from $35 million to $500 billion.