Fidelity Information Services has signed a multi-million dollar agreement to use IBM's WebSphere Internet infrastructure software as the basis of its new mortgage processing system.
Fidelity currently processes more than 24 million existing home loans in the US and says the new mortgage system will handle more than a billion individual computer transactions every month.
IBM and Fidelity have been jointly building the system, which is designed to speed up mortgage processing and connect Fidelity's network seamlessly to its client financial institutions. As part of the agreement Fidelity will use the full range of IBM's WebSphere middleware products to support new ASP-based processing as well as its traditional license business.
Fidelity also is purchasing IBM's DB2 database software and IBM Rational development tools and has replaced existing mainframe computers with two IBM eServer z990 'T-Rex' mainframes. A third T-Rex was implemented specifically for development. Fidelity says the recently installed mainframes have already resulted in a significant increase in the number of loans processed per minute.
Hugh Harris, president, mortgage division, Fidelity Information Services, says: "As part of its plans to re-architect its servicing platform, Fidelity is relying on a new Web-based system to reduce paperwork and other manual processes. Additionally, because the system is based on Java and other open standards supported by IBM, it more easily supports the exchange of information with its clients' disparate IT systems."