American Business Financial Services, Inc. Introduces UplandBroker.com; New Internet Mortgage Lending Tool Benefits Brokers and Consumers.

Business Editors

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 18, 2004

American Business Financial Services, Inc. (ABFS) (NASDAQ:ABFI) has introduced UplandBroker.com, a new Internet tool that helps mortgage brokers create innovative ways to structure mortgage and home equity loans for consumers in one of the most active mortgage markets in 40 years.

Barry Epstein, ABFS' Managing Director of Wholesale Lending said, "We've added a new capability to EasyLoan Advisor (ELA), our patent pending proprietary online loan structuring system built for consumers. UplandBroker.com now provides a fully automated complementary loan structuring system for brokers, which we believe will help brokers increase their productivity and help them close more loans in a time-effective manner. UplandBroker.com was designed from the mortgage brokers' point of view. We believe it has the flexibility to enable brokers to create loan strategies that give customers more precise choices for their particular financial situations."

The new web site enables brokers to include the details of their clients' financial profiles, and list their clients' specific financial goals. ELA not only structures, but also restructures loan options, which the Company believes gives brokers the ability to efficiently satisfy their customers' financial needs.

UplandBroker.com offers a complete suite of "backroom" tools that allows the broker to follow the status of each individual loan all the way through to closing. At the same time, brokers can track new business already in their pipeline. In addition, the web site gives sales managers the power to view their salespeople's progress, compare activity between salespeople, and bring efficiencies to the loan origination process.

Epstein, who is responsible for guiding ABFS' expanding broker origination efforts, said, "Employing our patent-pending ELA technology, this unique proprietary web site has the ability to structure loans within minutes, and also gives brokers the ability to see other potential loan scenarios that may benefit the client. While UplandBroker.com provides benefits to brokers and consumers alike, we believe it will also improve ABFS' ability to generate wholesale originations nationwide."

There is no charge for using the web site, which can be accessed through www.UplandBroker.com (Upland Mortgage Broker Services).

American Business Financial Services, Inc. is a diversified financial services company operating predominantly in the eastern and central portions of the United States. The Company primarily originates, sells and services home equity and, subject to market conditions in the secondary loan market, business purpose loans through a combination of channels, including a national processing center located at its centralized operating office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a small processing center in Roseland, New Jersey. The Company also processes and purchases home equity loans from other financial institutions through its Bank Alliance Services program.

For further information, contact Stephen M. Giroux, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, 215-940-4537, or Keith Bratz, VP--Corporate Communications, 215-940-4525.

Certain statements contained in this press release, which are not historical fact, may be deemed to be forward-looking statements under federal securities laws. There are many important factors that could cause American Business Financial Services, Inc. and its subsidiaries' actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, general economic conditions, including interest rate risk, future residential real estate values, regulatory changes (legislative or otherwise) affecting the mortgage lending and real estate industries, regulatory investigations of lending practices, lending to credit-impaired borrowers, competition, demand for the Company's products, relationships with brokers, ability to obtain financing, loan prepayment rates, delinquency and default rates, access to securitization markets, changes in factors influencing or interruptions in securitization and whole loan sale markets, ability to successfully implement changes in business strategy, amount of debt outstanding, restrictive covenants in debt instruments and other risks identified in American Business Financial Services, Inc.'s Securities and Exchange Commission filings.