Harris Trust and Savings Bank and Bank IV Mortgage Co. have signed contracts to use mortgage software from Data-Link Systems Inc.
Data-Link is a subsidiary of Milwaukee's Fiserv Inc. Chicago-based Harris is owned by Bank of Montreal. Bank IV Mortgage, based in Wichita, Kan., is a pan of Bank IV, a subsidiary of Fourth Financial Corp.
Long Search
"We searched for almost two years for a servicing system," said John Faulhauber, division administrator at Harris. "Over the course of time, we not only needed a servicing system that would interact with our origination and risk management system, but one that would allow us to be competitive in the market."
Harris bought Data-Link's license and will pay an annual maintenance fee, though terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The bank is its Canadian parent's primary vehicle for expansion in the United States. It is currently working on a deal to acquire Suburban Bancorp and its 13 branches.
Data-Link's other new client, Bank IV, will run Data-Link's loan servicing software on its inhouse mainframe computer, and also will use the software vendor's Fastcloser loan origination system and risk management and secondary marketing system.
"We're involved in rapid growth," said Gary Brown, president of Bank IV Mortgage. "We had literally outgrown our old system. We began with wanting to upgrade our system and quickly expanded to looking for origination."
$1.5B Portfolio Seen
Mr. Brown predicted that Bank IV Mortgage will be servicing more than $1.5 billion in loans by the end of this year. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Data-Link Systems has over 100 customers nationwide. The company processes loans for commercial banks, thrifts, credit unions, and mortgage banks in service bureau environments or through customer-purchased licenses.
