Rapid Reporting Enters Credit Union Market; Identity Verification Company to Assist Credit Unions Identify Fraudulent Activities.

Business Editors

FT. WORTH, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 8, 2003

Rapid Reporting Verification Company, a national provider of pre-funding income and identity verification products, announced that it is introducing its verification products, IncomeChek and DirectChek, to credit unions across the United States. IncomeChek and DirectChek are online products that provide an efficient and cost effective way to verify a borrower's income and identity at the beginning of the loan application process. Previously, Rapid Reporting had concentrated its efforts in the mortgage and banking industries.

Jay Meadows, president and CEO of Rapid Reporting, and Ray Petta, COO, founded the company in 1998 to help mortgage companies and banks verify identity for all borrowers. Together, they spearheaded efforts for Rapid Reporting to become the first company to form a relationship with the Social Security Administration (SSA) for identity verification purposes. This is significant because the company actually taps into the SSA database to verify that the data provided by an individual either matches or does not match the SSA data.

"More and more credit unions are gaining primary financial institution (PFI) status with their members," Meadows said. "To maintain this status, credit unions need to offer a full range of products and services to meet their members' needs and that includes mortgage lending services. With the influx of credit unions offering mortgage services, we thought that IncomeChek and DirectChek would be helpful for truly identifying borrowers because identity theft has become such a prominent factor in today's society."

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America. According to the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC), identity theft is the most popular form of consumer fraud, in part because it is the most profitable. In figures released in September 2003, more than 27 million people have been victims of identity theft in the last five years, costing them $5 billion and businesses and financial institutions almost $48 billion. The FTC released a survey showing that in the last year alone, 9.9 million people were victims of identity theft.

Meadows, who recently addressed the MBAA Quality Assurance Conference said, "I continue to hear that Identity theft is growing at an alarming rate. It is the number one crime in the United States. We tell our customers that to stop identity theft before it gets started, they need virgin data, or information that is gathered from public or semi-public sources, such as the Social Security Administration or a state Department of Vital Statistics before completing a mortgage application. That is the kind of information that we give our customers."

Randall W. Robinson, president of Columbia, S. C.-based SCARNG (South Carolina Army National Guard) Federal Credit Union, said, "Five years ago, I knew almost every member of the credit union; however, we have grown significantly, and it is impossible to truly know every member who comes to the credit union to apply for a mortgage loan. Relying on credit report data to provide us with all the history associated with a borrower in today's lending environment is not feasible. To really know if a borrower is who he or she says he or she is, the Social Security number needs to be authenticated. That is what Rapid Reporting does, and I am excited that they will be making their products available to credit unions. Having the extra validation will always be beneficial because fraudsters are becoming more and more clever."

Rapid Reporting's IncomeChek, which is used to verify income, and DirectChek, which meets USA Patriot Act compliance, and is used to verify identity, both operate over a secure, Intranet, Web-based portal. Its open architecture platform enables software application customization to meet individual customer needs.

Petta added, "Mortgage lending in the credit union industry is poised for growth, and we want to provide them with the tools to be very successful. To prevent identity theft, credit unions need to have authenticated data; that is why we go directly to the (IRS and SSA) source to get them the information they will need to make informed lending decisions. We look forward to working with the credit union industry."

About Rapid Reporting

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Ft. Worth, Texas, Rapid Reporting Verification Company is a national provider of pre-funding income and identity verification products for mortgage lenders to help combat fraud. The company's core offerings are IncomeChek, which is used to verify income, and DirectChek, which meets USA Patriot Act compliance and is used to verify identity. The products operate over a secure, Intranet, Web-based portal, which is audited daily for security purposes. IncomeChek and DirectChek are used by mortgage lenders and commercial and personal lenders to provide an efficient and cost effective means to identify a borrower at the beginning of the loan application process.

Rapid Reporting formed and continues to build relationships with government agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA), to gather electronic data for verification purposes.

For additional information, contact the sales department at 888.749.4411 or email [e-mail]. Visit its Web site at www.rapidreporting.com.