Competix.com Strikes Strategic Alliance with Trans Union; Secures $15 Million in Funding Led by J.P. Morgan.

Business Editors

BURLINGAME, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2000

Competix.com, a leader in online loan automation, announced today it has signed a strategic alliance agreement with Trans Union, a worldwide provider of information and decision-support solutions, and has secured $15 million in equity funding led by J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM), a leading global investment firm.

Under the terms of the Trans Union agreement, the two companies will partner to provide credit reporting services to clients that sign up for Credit Manager, Competix.com's fully automated, web-based lending system for smaller financial institutions. The deal will maximize the sale of Credit Manager to small- and medium-sized financial institutions through the combination of Trans Union's national sales force and Competix.com's direct sales force.

"This alliance with Trans Union has the immediate potential to significantly increase our customer base and transaction volume," said William G. Fisher, CEO and Chairman of Competix.com. "Combining a web-based lending solution with access to a free credit report is a value proposition that the financial services industry has not seen up to this point. Our new financing, coming on the heels of this Trans Union agreement, places Competix.com in an excellent position to dominate the automated lending markets."

Competix.com's Credit Manager uses the Internet to provide financial institutions with an automated process for the full range of personal and small business loans. By automating the origination process of lending, Credit Manager completes the entire loan transaction in minutes as compared to traditional systems that can take days or weeks. Once the user has filled out an application and hits the "submit" button, a decisioned response occurs in seconds. The lending institution can then automatically print the loan documents for the applicant to sign. Detailed information can be found at competix.com.

In addition, the system is fully customized to match each institution's own unique credit granting policies. Banks using the system are able to: book more loans without adding staff, reduce the risk of bad loans, improve customer service, and increase individual lender productivity levels.

"Competix.com is an exciting investment for us, because we believe it provides a unique product in an under-served market," said Nicholas B. Paumgarten, chairman of Corsair II at J.P. Morgan. "Competix.com solves a fundamental infrastructure problem for small and medium-sized financial institutions, loan automation with a hosted, web-based service that costs a fraction of competing solutions."

Other investors include: Trans Union and the two institutions that provided the initial backing for Competix.com---the Bank of Montreal and American Management Systems, Inc.

"We're excited to offer this solution to our customers," said Bill Rodgers, Executive Vice President of Trans Union. "The system makes it seamless for a customer to automate its lending functions."

Trans Union is one of the nation's leading information companies, serving all 50 states through its own sales offices and independent credit bureaus. The company provides a broad range of industries with products and services that include credit reports, risk scoring models, target marketing systems, pre-employment evaluation reports, skip tracing and search tools, customized lists, as well as other information-based products. Trans Union has operations in Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, Spain, Italy, South Africa, Kenya, and Hong Kong. For more information about Trans Union's products or services, visit the company at transunion.com.

J.P. Morgan & Co. Incorporated is a leading global financial firm that meets critical financial needs for business enterprises, governments, and individuals. The firm advises on corporate strategy and structure, raises capital, makes markets in financial instruments, and manages investment assets.

Morgan also commits its own capital to promising enterprises and invests and trades to capture market opportunities. More information about the firm can be found at jpmorgan.com.

J.P. Morgan Corsair II Capital Partners is the firm's dedicated investment fund for financial services companies worldwide. Corsair II seeks to assist highly qualified management teams to exploit opportunities created by industry dynamics, regulatory changes, and shifts in the macroeconomic environment. More information about J.P. Morgan Corsair II Capital Partners can be found at jpmorgan.com/corsair.

Bank of Montreal, Canada's first bank, is a highly diversified financial services institution. The bank operates in more than thirty lines of business within its group of companies, including Nesbitt Burns, one of Canada's largest full-service investment firms and Chicago based Harris Bank, a major U.S. Midwestern financial institution. Bank of Montreal has an equity position in and a strategic alliance with Grupo Financiero Bancomer, a leading Mexican financial institution. More information can be found at bmo.com.

American Management Systems, Inc. is one of the twenty largest international business and information technology-consulting firms worldwide. AMS is the premier provider of Next Generation Enterprise business and technology solutions that improve business performance, including eBusiness strategy, management and technology services. Founded in 1970 with headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, AMS has over 8,000 employees and fifty-seven offices worldwide. Additional information can be found at ams.com.

Competix.com, based in Burlingame, California, is a leading provider of automated lending solutions to issuers of credit nationwide. Credit Manager, the company's Internet lending solution, is a turnkey credit decisioning service based on proven, state-of-the-art lending technology developed by American Management Systems, Inc., a $1.24 billion international information technology firm and Bank of Montreal, one of the largest banks in North America.

The service supports a wide range of personal and small business loan products including installment loans, revolving credit lines, credit cards, mortgage loans, overdraft protection, home equity loans and indirect lending. Credit Manager is offered as a cost-effective alternative to traditional large-scale lending software and expensive hardware systems.