BenchMark Consulting International Announces Key Findings of its Annual Middle Market Lending BenchMark Program.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 6, 2003

BenchMark Consulting International, a leading international management consulting firm to the financial services industry, announced the results from the 2003 Middle Market Lending BenchMark Program, revealing, among other findings, a large move toward the use of image technology, a continued centralization of functions for the highest performers, and the importance of a stratified approach to the origination and servicing functions. The program, completed September this year, examined the entire middle market lending process from end to end. The program delivered the attributes that drive overall performance for the participants and then further broke out the results into Core Processes to highlight specific drivers of performance within each component of the entire middle market lending area. Along with these key findings each participant was compared against industry benchmarks.

The program revealed that there is no single attribute that can determine the success in the credit analysis /credit approval core processes. "Our participants confirmed what we, at BenchMark were certain of," said Cheryl Yaeger, president of BenchMark Consulting International. "There is no one silver bullet when it comes to delivering Middle Market credit to borrowers. Rather, it is the integration of people, policy and available work tools; automated workflow systems and systematic capturing of exposure and relationships information that will yield success." Success hinged on the division of duties between the technology and the various groups as well as the work distribution between front room and back room groups.

Results of the program also indicate that all participants are utilizing or investigating the use of image technology with regard to legal documents, and some of those participants have considered imaging credit documents. The use of imaging technology in loan origination and servicing, says, John O'Connor, Commercial Lending Practice Manager of BenchMark Consulting International, will only continue once financial institutions begin to enable the entire process though the use of image. Some organizations that are using image only for retention have only seen their expense base rise. "There is no doubt that image technology - when used to enhance workflow - can result in overwhelming gains," said O'Connor. "Not only can it increase operational efficiencies and effectiveness, image technology can clearly improve internal and external customer service. However, the use of image technology will only be cost effective once institutions enable their entire workflow with the technology, absent of that image is a very expensive alternative to microfilm. Benefits will be accrued not only in hard dollar savings but also in improved internal and external customer experience."

Success in the document preparation and collateral evaluation area is still contingent on workflow designs, staffing levels and employee experience; however, the Middle Market BenchMark program also revealed that the following are also significant drivers:

-- Complexity and policy guidelines associated with review of

documents prepared - internally and externally;

-- Streamlining of renewal documents and process along with

correct use of accepted technology; and

-- The utilization of the internal document preparation group and

the workflow associated with the assignment of such work.

The break out of information into Core Processes for the Middle Market Lending BenchMark program gave participants, metrics, attributes, policies and workflows of high performance. These Core Processes are: employee allocation; product profile; product delivery; prospecting and relationship management; credit analysis and credit decision; document preparation and collateral evaluation; review, booking and funding; portfolio management; loan servicing; and collections and recovery.

For more information about the program, please contact John O'Connor. He can be reached via phone at 770.428.8899, ext. 4134 or via e-mail at [e-mail].

About BenchMark Consulting International

BenchMark Consulting International has specialized in improving the financial services industry since 1988. The company is a management consulting firm that improves the profitability of its financial services customers through the delivery of management decision making information and change management services to realize the benefits of business process changes. BenchMark Consulting International's expertise is in the designing, changing and measuring of operational processes.

As of 2003, the firm has worked with 19 of the top 20 (in asset size) commercial banks, all 11 automobile captive finance corporations, several of the largest consumer finance corporations and many regional banks throughout the United States. Internationally, BenchMark Consulting International has worked with the five largest Canadian commercial banks, more than 20 European organizations in eight different countries, in addition to financial institutions in Latin America and Asia.

The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fidelity National Financial, Inc., a provider of products, services and solutions to the real estate and financial services industries. BenchMark Consulting International has dual headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia and Munich, Germany. For more information about the company, visit the Web site at www.benchmarkinternational.com.