Automated Financial Systems, Inc. (AFS), and Advanced Computer
Technologies (ACT) have teamed to provide AFSCommerce(TM), an
enterprise-wide credit and risk management solution. It is the
industry's only fully integrated lending solution designed to process
all types of loans (consumer, commercial, specialized assets, and
investment banking) on a single delivery platform. Integral to
AFSCommerce is its unique straight-through processing capability,
encompassing the lending process from loan request through payoff or
asset sale, including the delivery of management information.
Under this new agreement, AFS and ACT will be providing
AFSCommerce to Santander Financial Service, Inc. (SFSI) of San Juan,
Puerto Rico, a wholly owned subsidiary of Santander BanCorp
(Santander). The delivery will include the AFS consumer lending system
that will support operations in SFSI's 70 branches throughout Puerto
Rico. Currently the second largest consumer finance company in Puerto
Rico, SFSI will access AFS' automated origination, decisioning and
underwriting modules, as well as core loan servicing and collections
via the AFSCommerce lending application. ACT currently services
Santander from its main offices in San Juan and also provides
localized computing services and content management throughout Latin
America.
"AFS and ACT will significantly automate existing lending
processes," said Eugene S. Hudders, president of ACT. "It will enable
our clients to provide additional products to their clients more
quickly and give them the flexibility to respond to their customer
needs and serve them more efficiently. We expect our client's
customers to benefit from added convenience and enhanced
responsiveness."
According to Higol Teran, VP at ACT, "We currently provide
numerous services to the Santander Group and are pleased to work with
AFS to bring enhanced lending capabilities to this valued client. In
partnership with AFS, we believe that we are able to assure a
best-of-breed consumer lending solution for the Santander Group that
will differentiate them competitively and demonstrate their ongoing
commitment to superior customer support." The AFS and ACT partnership
offers every customer in Puerto Rico a best-of-breed consumer lending
solution that will allow then to differentiate them competitively and
demonstrate their ongoing commitment to superior customer support.
"We are very pleased to be partnering with ACT to introduce a
straight-through process for consumer lending at Island Finance," said
John Shain, president of AFS. "The combination of ACT's proven client
relationship with AFS' unique lending solution provides an
unprecedented opportunity to advance the lending process, increasing
efficiency, enhancing customer responsiveness, and providing
additional intelligence for effective business management."
About Santander Financial Services, Inc.
Santander Financial Services Inc., headquartered in San Juan,
Puerto Rico, was acquired by Santander BanCorp in 2005. It provides
consumer loans and real estate-secured loans to customers through its
70 stores in Puerto Rico, as well as sales finance contracts through
retail merchants. The Company has approximately $650 million in loan
receivables in Puerto Rico, representing about one-third of the
island's consumer finance market share. Island Finance has been a
leader in consumer finance for over four decades in Puerto Rico, and
has the second largest market share of consumer finance lenders on the
Island. The Island Finance brand is one of the most recognized brand
names in financial services in Puerto Rico.
About ACT
Since its inception in 1994, ACT has become an industry leader in
the design and development of case management solutions and has built
a successful track record of providing customized outsourcing and
web-based solutions to a constantly expanding roster of clients. The
Company's web-based applications are a proven fusion of form and
function that combine the latest design techniques with advanced
technology. The Firm specializes in developing complex applications
using user-friendly layouts structured in a way that allows for simple
navigation throughout the whole application. For more information,
contact ACT at www.actpr.com.
About AFS
AFS is the dominant provider of commercial lending software and
services to U.S. financial institutions, combining the systems,
execution expertise, and management information to mitigate risk,
reduce costs, and increase revenue. The firm is headquartered in
Exton, PA; its European subsidiary, Automated Financial Systems GmbH
is located in Vienna, Austria. For further information, visit AFS'
website at www.afsvision.com.
