In Brief: Texas Subprime Lender Using Gallagher System

United Companies Financial Corp., a subprime lender, is running Gallagher Financial Systems' Millennium system at its Ginger Mae subsidiaries and Unicorp, the software vendor said.

United Cos. plans to use the system nationwide, said Gallagher, which is based in Coral Gables, Fla.

Gallagher Millennium is a Windows-based core processing unit designed to let lenders qualify potential borrowers, process applications, and close, settle, and track loans.

Risk management is especially important to United, which provides lending to homebuyers who have less-than-perfect credit ratings and are not able to access conventional credit.

Loans are priced according to each homebuyer's risk factors.

United, which $2.5 billion in mortgages nationwide, chose Ginger Mae, the smallest of its subsidiaries, to test the system before expanding to its more than 200 branches in 45 states.

Ginger Mae is a wholesale lender conduit that originates loans, securitizes them, and sells them through Wall Street firms.