Bankers Systems and Zoot Enterprises Team Up to Deliver Efficiency in Loan Origination

April 26, 2001

St. Cloud, Minn – Bankers Systems, Inc. and Zoot Enterprises, Inc. announced today that they will work together to provide a complete loan origination solution that delivers greater convenience and options to a broader marketplace.

The partnership gives financial institutions of all sizes the best of two worlds: access to Zoot's advanced loan origination and credit decisioning systems, and lending documentation from Bankers Systems' Expere™ compliance knowledge base. All of this is achieved without leaving Zoot's application service provider (ASP) environment or requiring custom interface programming. The new solution will help financial institutions reach new markets faster, be more productive, and cut costs which are normally associated with setting up their systems.

The nation's largest banks use Zoot's systems, but with the addition of Bankers Systems' documents, Zoot is expected to increase its appeal to mid-size banks that want a more complete solution. And, Bankers Systems' customers now can expand the scope of their existing software to include Zoot's flexible credit decisioning and loan origination solutions.

Bankers Systems is well known for its extensive lines of lending and deposit documents that support federal and state-related laws for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The documents are a highly effective and efficient choice for banks operating in multiple jurisdictions, and they are an excellent fit with Zoot's loan origination products and markets.

By partnering Bankers Systems and Zoot, the result is greater efficiencies for banks-both in cost savings and time. Credit decisioning can be completed in just seconds. If the application is approved, the data moves into Zoot's loan origination system to acquire title, flood insurance, an appraisal, or any other information that might be required. Once the application is completed, the required loan documentation is produced using Bankers Systems' documents.

“Bankers Systems' lending documents complete our browser-based loan origination system,” said Tom Johnson, Vice President of Product Development at Zoot Enterprises. “While Zoot has offered loan origination functionality for some time, this is the final piece we needed to offer our system as a turnkey solution. Customers now have the ability to process credit applications-from the original consumer contact through the booked loan-without leaving Zoot's ASP environment.”

“The strength of the Expere™ knowledge base is its ability to provide the flexible compliance solutions that a customer needs, in a format that fits the way they do business,” adds John Schramel, Director of Sales Alliances and Business Development at Bankers Systems. “It's all about increasing their efficiency and productivity while we help them manage risk. We're very pleased to work with a strong partner like Zoot to bring this solution to the high transaction volume market.”

About Zoot Enterprises
Zoot Enterprises is the nation's leader in providing instant credit decisioning solutions. Zoot's flexible ASP environment allows connectivity to all of the data sources and services used by financial institutions in evaluating consumer and business credit, while providing unparalleled performance and reliability. The ability to produce virtually any custom decisioning solution has led to long-term partnerships with seven of the top ten banking companies in America. A series of innovative products has allowed Zoot to reduce its customers' time-to-market from weeks to hours. Go to www.zootweb.com or call 406-586-5050 for more information.

About Bankers System
Bankers Systems, Inc., a CCH INCORPORATED company, is a leading national provider of compliance resource solutions for financial institutions and their legal counsel. The company's deposit, lending, and retirement plan documents, disclosures, software, training, and support services are used by more than 12,000 financial institutions, including 83 percent of banks in the U.S. In addition, over 60 leading core processors and systems integrators use Bankers Systems' compliance-related documents and other components in their solutions. For more information, call 1-800-552-9410 or visit www.bankerssystems.com.

Bankers Systems Inc. is a registered trademark and Expere is a trademark of Bankers Systems, Inc.

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