AmSouth Bank Streamlines Operation; Bank Cuts Costs, and Increases Revenue with AFS Partnership.

Business Editors

EXTON, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 15, 2002

With a strategic plan that focuses on a small number of very powerful strategic initiatives, AmSouth Bank (NYSE:ASO) has launched a project to automate loan processing.

For the Bank, accomplishing its strategic initiatives will be the catalyst for revenue growth in the future and for achieving aggressive goals of 12 to 15 percent annual earnings per share growth and a return on equity of 20 to 22 percent.

AmSouth like many of its peers has undergone several rounds of mergers and acquisitions, however it has set itself apart by leading the industry in asset optimization and operational efficiency. With an already strong record of efficiency, the Bank wanted to make further improvements to its lending infrastructure automating lending workflows and streamlining lending processes.

When Automated Financial Systems and AmSouth entered into a business partnership, AFS was faced with the challenge of providing bottom-line benefits and automating loan processing across commercial banking, commercial real estate paralenders, and paralenders in the Bank's business loan centers.

As a result AmSouth's commercial loan services installed a state of the industry workflow tool - AFSXpress(R) Paralender. The software was installed on desktop workstations for commercial and commercial real estate paralenders, and for paralenders in the business loan center.

According to the Bank, this allows Commercial Banking to realize a multi year system vision formulated a number of years ago by Earlie Stowe, commercial banking services' division head and senior vice president AmSouth Bank.

"The workflow concept was foreign to those in the commercial banking industry until AmSouth and Automated Financial Systems (AFS) began a partnership to automate the workflow," said Stowe, "We are not aware of any other commercial bank that has a more integrated workflow tool than AmSouth." With the implementation, AFSXpress Paralender data is entered one time to produce loan documents and automatically book loans to AFS Level III(TM), the commercial accounting system for record. While many institutions currently enter data in AFSXpress, they then go to a document preparation system and reenter some of the data again. To further improve efficiency AFSXpress users at AmSouth will soon gain the capability to review imaged loan documents from their desktop eliminating the need to request documents from the central file room.

At AmSouth the new, automated lending process begins when a paralender on the relationship team receives a loan approval form (LAF) from the relationship manager. The approved loan information - amount, terms, etc. are entered into AFSXpress. AFSXpress then automatically selects and produces the appropriate documents depending on state, customer type, and collateral.

AFSXpress uses on-screen graphics to indicate completed steps and pending steps needed prior to producing documents. After the customer signature is obtained, the paralender can click on a button to deposit the funds into an AmSouth DDA account or offset to an official check and immediately book the loan to AFS Level III.

Data entry forms, suspense tickets and posting delays have been eliminated from the process.

The original documents are then sent to commercial loan services for imaging and indexing. Indexing enables the documents to be retrieved electronically by name, tax ID or customer numbers. The CLS collateral processor retrieves the imaged documents and accesses the collateral module of AFSXpress for a post closing review and continues the same job flow that was initiated by the relationship team.

AFSXpress automatically selects the scope of the review depending on the loan size and collateral. For example on an equipment secured loan, AFSXpress will ask the processor if the UCC has been filed where on a real estate secured loan it will ask if the mortgage has been recorded.

But on all loans, it will ask if appropriate approval and loan documents are in file. If the processor clicks no, an exception is generated for automated distribution to the relationship manager. Since commercial products can be varied, AFSXpress increases the efficiency and consistency of review.

AmSouth expects to save millions of dollars and hundreds of man-hours with streamlined workflows and reduced costs per loan created by AFSXpress.

By reducing the steps in the lending process, AmSouth also feels that it will benefit from one time data entry, data consistency, improved loan accuracy, and processing efficiency that will enable it to increase revenues by enabling Bank staff to handle a greater number of loans per person.

"AmSouth Commercial Banking is viewed as an industry leader in the use of automation and the use of AFS products - AFSXpress Paralender, AFSXpress Collateral, and the Level III accounting system," said Stowe. "We are contacted regularly by banks of all sizes to inquire on our processes. A frequently heard question is `What is AmSouth doing?', other banks recognize our automation leadership."

About AmSouth

AmSouth Bank has more than $38.9 billion in assets, offers a complete range of consumer and commercial banking and trust services to businesses and individuals through 600 banking offices throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

AmSouth is a leader among regional banks in the Southeast in several key business segments, including consumer and commercial banking, small business banking, mortgage lending, equipment leasing, annuity and mutual fund sales, and trust and investment management services

About AFS

Automated Financial Systems provides asset and liability products and services as an Application Service Provider (ASP) delivery through its e-business model called AFSCommerce. With more than 32 years of experience in delivering financial services software, AFS is the industry leader in the execution of lending and treasury management solutions for top-tier financial institutions.

Over $1 trillion in loans are currently processed on AFS' systems. The firm is headquartered in Exton, Pennsylvania. For more information go to http://www.afsvision.com.