American AgCredit Automates Lending Operations With CapitalStream

SUNNYVALE, California, October 4, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

- Web-based Solution Improves Efficiency, Eliminates Duplicate Data Entry and Provides Real-time Access to Customer & Loan Information

HCL Technologies, a leading global provider of software-led solutions, infrastructure management and BPO services, announced American AgCredit has successfully implemented the CapitalStream(TM) "Straight Through Processing" (STP) solution (http://www.hcltech.com/capitalstream) to gain greater operational control, improve reporting capabilities and ensure data integrity.

American AgCredit is a leading agricultural lender in the western U.S. and the nation's seventh largest Farm Credit cooperative. With more than 90 years experience in agricultural lending, American AgCredit has built their business on personal customer service.

"Our goal when we started this project was to deepen relationships with our customers while improving the bank's overall operational efficiency. With CapitalStream's automation and integration capabilities reducing the time spent on processing loans we are able to keep the focus on our most important asset, our customers," stated Wlodek Kulawiak, CIO for American AgCredit.

CapitalStream is an integrated software platform enabling commercial banks and finance companies to implement Straight Through Processing across lending and leasing portfolios. CapitalStream has transformed lending by integrating and automating sales, origination, credit, decisioning, documentation, funding, booking and account monitoring.

Prior to implementing CapitalStream, most of American AgCredit's lending processes, from booking the loan through to entering it in their loan servicing system, were done using Excel spreadsheets and Word documents. CapitalStream has automated these processes and enabled data to be entered only once, ensuring data integrity while providing instant access to customer, relationship, exposure, credit, loan, collateral and covenant information as it is now maintained in a single system. The improved accessibility, consistency and storing and of all customer and lending data is vital to American AgCredit for risk management and portfolio monitoring and reporting.

In addition to its core lending capabilities, CapitalStream's flexible architecture supports American AgCredit's agricultural-specific lending requirements. The most critical include managing inconsistant cash flow as the structure of loans is often tied to crop cycles, supporting capital and land intensive long term loans and mortgages and being able to satisfy ongoing Farm Credit specific regulations.

"We wanted to put the building block in place to enable us to automate our manual processes and connect all our systems, as well as provide flexibility to add future systems. CapitalStream provides standardized business processes that are highly configurable so we did not have to build a system from scratch," commented Kathy Wheelock, Chief Risk Officer for American AgCredit. "Being on a Web-based platform is also very important as many other solutions we considered were built on older technologies that are becoming obsolete which could limit our flexibility going forward."

CapitalStream is a core component of HCL FinanceSolution(TM), a suite of software platforms, best practice methodologies and business transformation services specifically designed for lending and leasing including specialized configurations of enterprise solutions for CRM, content management, business intelligence and more.

"We see tremendous value in having a solution from an established vendor we can count on to support our operations for the long haul. HCL's unparalleled financial stability and proven track record of success in the financial industry provides us with that confidence," continued Kulawiak. "One of the benefits of executive management working closely together throughout the sales and implementation process is both sides learned more about each other's business and we identified additional places for improvement that HCL could assist us with."

"American AgCredit is a prime example of how organizations can transform their manual, paper-based operations into a streamlined, flexible, integrated and automated straight through process that meets their unique business requirements." stated Bill Hughes, Vice President for HCL CapitalStream Lending Group. "Like most industry leaders, American AgCredit has distinguished itself by meeting the specific needs of clients in their target industries. With CapitalStream and other flexible HCL FinanceSolutions, American AgCredit is able to tailor these systems and processes for agricultural lending, a testament to the flexibility of the lending solutions offered by HCL."

About American AgCredit

Founded in 1916, American AgCredit is part of the cooperative nationwide Farm Credit System, and is the nation's 7th largest Farm Credit cooperative. American AgCredit specializes in providing financial services to agriculture and rural customers throughout California, Nevada, Central Kansas, and Northern Oklahoma, as well as to capital markets customers in 30 states across the nation. Financial services provided by American AgCredit include production and mortgage financing, equipment and vehicle leasing, lines of credit, and the Young, Beginning and Small farmer program. In addition, the Association provides interest-free loans for qualifying 4-H and FFA members through its AgYouth program, as well as college scholarships to young people interested in agriculture. For more information about American AgCredit's financial services, call (800)800-4865 or visit the website at http://www.agloan.com for a listing of offices by region.

About HCL Technologies

HCL Technologies is a leading global IT services company, working with clients in the areas that impact and redefine the core of their businesses. Since its inception into the global landscape after its IPO in 1999, HCL focuses on 'transformational outsourcing', underlined by innovation and value creation, and offers integrated portfolio of services including software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management, engineering and R&D services and BPO. HCL leverages its extensive global offshore infrastructure and network of offices in 26 countries to provide holistic, multi-service delivery in key industry verticals including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Consumer Services, Public Services and Healthcare. HCL takes pride in its philosophy of 'Employee First' which empowers our 64,557 transformers to create a real value for the customers. HCL Technologies, along with its subsidiaries, had consolidated revenues of US$ 2.7 billion (Rs. 12,565 crores), for the year ended as on 30th June 2010. For more information, please visit http://www.hcltech.com

About HCL Enterprise

HCL is a $5.3 billion leading global technology and IT enterprise comprising two companies listed in India - HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems. Founded in 1976, HCL is one of India's original IT garage start-ups. A pioneer of modern computing, HCL is a global transformational enterprise today. Its range of offerings includes product engineering, custom & package applications, BPO, IT infrastructure services, IT hardware, systems integration, and distribution of information and communications technology (ICT) products across a wide range of focused industry verticals. The HCL team consists of over 71,000 professionals of diverse nationalities, who operate from 29 countries including over 500 points of presence in India. HCL has partnerships with several leading Global 1000 firms, including leading IT and Technology firms. For more information, please visit http://www.hcl.com

    For More Information Please Contact:

    Geoff Merten
    Marketing Manager, HCL CapitalStream
    +1(949)930-1655
    [email protected]

    Kirsten Paragona
    Director of External Communications, HCL America
    +1(857)350-5393
    [email protected]

    Danielle Millerick
    ThinkMedia PARTNERS for HCL
    +1(781)861-7800
    [email protected]

SOURCE HCL Technologies