Affordable Lending Systems Now Available For Smaller Financial Institutions.

BATON ROUGE, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 1998--

APPRO Systems introduces Bright Box(TM) product line

APPRO Systems, Inc., a leading provider of comprehensive automated credit risk and loan processing systems, announced today the release of its new Bright Box product line.

These consumer and small business lending systems were developed to empower small- to medium-sized lenders with many of the technological advances used by larger institutions, such as credit scoring, risk-based pricing and workflow management.

Bright Box systems are Year 2000 compliant, automated, credit risk evaluation systems designed specifically to meet the special needs of varying-sized lenders and is available in three configurations for both consumer and small business lending: Bright Box Startup, Bright Box Medium Volume and Bright Box Heavy Volume.

Bright Box collects, merges, and evaluates personal and business credit information (for commercial loans) into a comprehensive risk assessment profile founded on the lending policies of the individual institution.

According to Craig Uffman, president of APPRO Systems, the company's development efforts and experience automating some of North America's largest lenders, has empowered the Bright Box line of lending systems with a series of sophisticated risk evaluation tools previously out of the reach of most community banks, start-ups, and credit unions.

"Now smaller institutions can improve their lending decisions, maximize profit potential per loan and more effectively compete within their markets," said Uffman. "Bright Box also provides a systems migration-path for lenders as their business grows."

About Bright Box Technology

APPRO's Bright Box, used as a networked system, uses an SQL relational database for information storage. Additionally, the APPRO Expert System implements an institutions credit policy and workflow strategy. Further, the system provides comprehensive risk evaluation by electronically integrating credit bureau reports, delinquency score and bankruptcy score models, capacity-to-pay calculations, cascading decision matrices, and the institution's credit policy guidelines.

The system also provides automated portfolio selection, down-selling, cross-selling, automated override tracking, aggregate exposure and missing information management capabilities.

Bright Box's core components are the Risk Processor and APPRO Expert System. The Risk Processor evaluates all incoming applications based on each institution's policy, makes its recommendation, and routes the application for further processing. APPRO Expert System is within the Risk Processor, and enforces an institution's credit policy and maintains the information about credit products.

Additional components include: Application Origination, which is the data entry program enabling personnel to enter information about applicants, co-applicants and the requested product; Analyst, which enables loan officers to review, evaluate and decision an application; and Verification, the program which allows institutions to verify critical application information, such as employment, outstanding debt and bank or credit references prior to credit approval.

About APPRO

APPRO Systems, Inc., founded in 1979, is privately held and managed. The company's family of credit assessment products is installed in more than 90 financial institutions nationwide. Along with the consumer lending and home improvement systems, APPRO's products include the 20/20 Small Business Lending System, a complete assessment package for commercial lending that evaluates multiple applicants and products. APPRO's consumer lending systems are used by high volume vendors throughout North America to evaluate credit risk and process consumer loans. Some of APPRO's customers include Hibernia, PNC Bank, San Francisco Federal Employees Credit Union and The Toronto-Dominion Bank.

APPRO Systems is headquartered at 9489 Interline Avenue, Baton Rouge, LA 70809. For more information contact Craig Uffman at [phone] or visit the company web site at www.approsystems.com.

CONTACT: APPRO Systems

Craig Uffman, 504/922-4713

[e-mail]

or

for APPRO Systems

Beth Quinlan, 404/264-7207