Good news on AFFI...a stock that you have mentioned on this thread in the very recent past.
Citibank Accepts iDEAL Auto Loan System
COLUMBIA, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 6, 1999-- The Dime Savings Bank of New York to
Use
Affinity Technology Group's rtDS Internet Service
Affinity Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:AFFI - news) announced today that revenues for the
quarter were $326 thousand with a net loss of $2.5 million, or $0.08 per share. For the comparable
period of 1998, revenues were $1.1 million and the Company reported a net loss of $3.0 million, or
$0.10 per share. The weighted average number of shares outstanding during the three months ended
March 31, 1999, was 29.6 million, compared to 30.4 million for the same period in 1998.
Citibank Accepts iDEAL System
Affinity also announced that Citibank had accepted its iDEAL system for indirect automobile loan
application processing, and that it expects Citibank to begin to use the iDEAL system to process
automobile loans within the next week. Murray Smith, Affinity's President and Chief Executive
Officer, stated, ''The acceptance of iDEAL by Citibank is a significant event for Affinity and is
essential to our future iDEAL sales initiatives. With the deployment of the first iDEAL system,
Affinity moves from a development-intensive phase to a phase emphasizing sales and operations.''
As previously announced, the pending sale of Citibank's automobile loan business to The Dime
Savings Bank of New York, FSB, is not expected to impact Affinity's sales and marketing efforts for
its iDEAL service. ''We are expecting a seamless transition from Citibank to Dime and will build on
this deployment to market our iDEAL service aggressively to other automobile lenders,'' Mr. Smith
said. Affinity recently announced that People's Bank of California had signed an agreement to use
Affinity's iDEAL system for indirect automobile lending.
Dime Will Be First rtDS Customer
Affinity also announced that Dime will be the first customer to implement its recently announced
rtDS service. rtDS is Affinity's real time decision service for lenders who do business on the
Internet. Robert Kettenmann, Dime's Executive Vice President and General Manager of Consumer
Lending, said, ''rtDS allows us to provide web applicants with real time decisions using our own
credit policy. Additionally, using Affinity's processing system will allow us to take our products to the
Internet market very rapidly and in a cost efficient manner.'' Dime is expected to be among the first
financial institutions in the Northeast to provide automated approvals for loan applications via the
Internet when the system becomes operational, which is expected to be next month.
Affinity announced that rtDS has now been extended to include the ability to provide decision
services not only for consumer loans, but also for mortgages, home equity loans and lines of credit,
and automobile loans and leases. Information on rtDS may be found at www.decisioning.com, the
web site of Affinity's wholly owned subsidiary, decisioning.com, which was formed to sell the rtDS
service and license other firms to operate under Affinity's patent covering automated lending over
the Internet.
Affinity Engages Patent Licensing Expert
Affinity also announced that it has retained Sage Capital, Ltd. to develop and execute a patent
licensing program for decisioning.com. Sage is a technology management, consultation, and
investment firm owned and managed by George M. Stadler, who has previously completed more
than 750 patent licensing transactions.
Additional Stock Sales
In separate news, Affinity announced that Jeff Norris, founder and a director of the Company, has
filed notice with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell an additional 1,000,000 shares of
Affinity stock. As of March 31, 1999, Mr. Norris had sold approximately 2,040,800 shares of Affinity
stock pursuant to previous notices filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Affinity's technology enables financial institutions to link their dealers, branches, call centers, and
Internet customers electronically to their credit departments, providing fully automated lending - and,
if necessary, connectivity to a loan officer - through every channel. For financial institutions,
Affinity's solutions expedite loan decisioning and processing and increase productivity and capacity of
branch personnel, call center agents, loan officers, and indirect agents, while improving the overall
customer experience. Affinity is located on the World Wide Web at www.affi.net.
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