Lomas Signing Clients for Mortgage System
Excelis Package, Eight Years in Development, Is Winning Customers
DALLAS -- Lomas Information Systems is landing the first contracts for its Excelis mortgage servicing computer system, a service that took eight years and $120 million to develop.
Lomas Information, a subsidiary of the bankrupt mortgage company, Lomas Financial Corp., unveiled Excelis in October 1990 but did not sign up its first client until April of this year.
A handful of additional contracts have been signed since April, however, and officers of Lomas Information say they are encouraged by what they call growing interest in the system.
Wide Applicability
Excelis is a family of mortgage servicing products aimed at covering all the bases in mortgage finance support, including loan originations, secondary marketing, loan servicing, and master servicing.
Matthew S. Jacobs, chief operating officer of Lomas Information, said the unit's marketing team already has made 125 presentations and is "booked solid" for the next three months.
Mr. Jacobs said Excelis' first client, Liberty Lending Services Inc., Wilmington, Ohio, is set to go on-line in October. Liberty holds a portfolio of 28,000 loans from 47 states.
And Lomas Information announced last week agreements with Cypress Financial Corp., Pasadena, Calif., and Mercantile Bank of St. Louis. Cypress holds a 8,500-loan mortgage servicing portfolio; Mercantile has 30,000 loans in its portfolio.
Expectations of Profitability
Lomas Information has been singled out as a key future profit engine for the company when its reorganization is complete. Lomas Financial, the parent company, soon will unveil its second reorganization plan to creditors.
Believing the mortgage servicing industry is in for continued consolidation, Excelis was designed to be a large-scale system running on International Business Machines Corp. mainframes. Lomas executives said the system can profitably render low-cost service once a large clientele is established.
The unit has been somewhat of a disappointment, however, because of costly and unexpected delays in getting Excelis up and running.
For example, delays were largely responsible for a $13.9 million operating loss at Lomas Information during the nine months ended March 31. The unit racked up an operating profit of $2.7 million during the prior-year period.
Mr. Jacobs said Excelis' drawn-out development phase is over and expressed confidence the client base will "grow significantly" over the next five years.
