IRVINE, Calif. and SANTA ROSA, Calif., Oct. 18, 2004 -- Portellus, a leading provider of technology tools and services to the financial services industry, today announced that Harbourton Mortgage Investment Corp. (HMIC), a national wholesale lender, has chosen Portellus to provide a complete suite of Web-based loan origination and business rules management technology.

In selecting Portellus over several competitors, officials with HMIC said they were impressed by the Portellus solution's comprehensiveness, flexibility and ease-of-use.

"Harbourton Mortgage decided they needed technology that offered a more integrated approach to loan origination and business rules management that could easily be managed from their end," said Portellus President and CEO John Le. "The Portellus suite of products offers the industry's first truly modular and flexible enterprise lending solution. Harbourton officials told us the deal-closer was the way our Loan Origination System and Business Rules Management System worked together seamlessly and effortlessly."

Steve Bowman, president of HMIC, said only Portellus' products satisfied his company's most critical needs: a Web-based Automated Underwriting System, Loan Origination System and Broker Portal, that fully automates eligibility and pricing. Bowman stressed that it was imperative that the technology implemented be easy-to-configure and maintain by internal business users, not an outsourced IT staff.

"Portellus demonstrated the flow and integration of their Loan Origination System and Automated Underwriting System that is a well-thought mortgage application -- not a software system that had been transitioned to the mortgage industry," Bowman said. "Data management is the lifeblood of our industry and our goal from the outset was to find a technology solution that could offer efficiencies. The broker portal, integrated price and product filter, decisioning engine and interactive status platform promote an ease of process and communication. To have a Web-based system that is easy-to-use, fast and accurate, gives our mortgage brokers a value-added tool that allows them to better service their clients. In turn, we improve our broker relationships by providing these efficiencies and services to complement our market-leading products and price."

Norm Koenig, national sales director for Portellus, said that "since our Loan Origination System is Web-based, various servers and software can be eliminated that would normally be needed to deploy a client-server system across a distributed environment. Yet, it still stores all data in one central database for ease of reporting."

"Like others in the mortgage industry, our business remains fluid -- today's processes are not tomorrow's," Bowman said. "We need to be able to manage and implement technology that can adapt to changing business environments -- the Portellus Lending Solution can do this and more."

Portellus developed its solutions in accordance with J2EE specification and XML services that support the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO) XML standards. The company will be demonstrating its suite of products next week at the Mortgage Bankers Association Annual Convention & Expo, Oct. 24-26, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco; Booth 1548.

About Portellus

Based in Irvine, Portellus is a leading technology firm that has developed a Business Rules Management System that can be used by a wide variety of industries and financial service firms, as well as an enterprise lending solution that enables lenders to implement a custom loan processing system that integrates seamlessly with their existing functions. The Portellus Lending Solution is an entirely Web-based, modular system that lenders can incorporate into their day-to-day operations as quickly -- or as gradually -- as they choose based on their unique IT and business needs. This capability enables lenders to benefit from the technology's proven time-reducing and cost-saving efficiencies without feeling they must turn their operations upside down to accommodate new systems and business practices.

About HMIC

Based in Santa Rosa and founded in 2001, HMIC is a national wholesale lender specializing in Alt A and subprime loans. The company has achieved its rapid growth through market-leading products and price coupled with a commitment to top service. In addition to the corporate location, HMIC currently lends in 16 states from its two other California locations in Irvine and San Jose, as well as its newest office in McLean, Va.

Siler & Company Public Relations for Portellus
Hugh Siler, 949-646-6966
hugh@silerpr.com