Credit Online, Inc., a member of The First American Corporation family of companies, announced June 20 that National City Corporation has "gone live" on its CreditOnline Network, an e-commerce service that connects buyers, sellers and lenders.

According to the company, similar to an ATM network, the CreditOnline Network enables businesses of all sizes—such as automotive dealerships—to electronically route credit applications via the Internet to participating lenders and finance companies. The Network provides high-speed electronic links to credit bureaus, between lenders and dealers, and between lenders.

By going live on the Network, National City can now receive auto loan applications from its automotive dealers online. National City will return decisions to dealers online as well, eliminating the need for manual faxing.

"Since National City is a major lender in the Midwest, adding them to our CreditOnline Network will increase the value of our services to dealers who want to conduct business with lenders specifically in that region," said Howard Tischler, president and chief executive officer of Credit Online. "National City’s addition is also testimony of the continued growth and strength of our Network."

"The CreditOnline Network helps us improve and extend our online services to our dealer customers," said Mark Dubis, vice president of National City’s Dealer Finance Group. "Now that we’re live on the Network, we’ll be able to reduce the time it takes for us to respond to our dealers, making them much more efficient and better able to respond to their customers’ needs."

National City Corporation, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is one of the largest automotive lenders in the Midwest, focusing on providing dealers with loan and floor plan financing products in addition to other banking and investment products. The company says it currently serves more than 4,000 dealers in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Tennessee and Kentucky. Last year, the company introduced the first bank-sponsored automotive shopping portal, National City Auto Channel (www.NCCAuto.com), which integrated its entire automotive dealer network. EzDealer (www.EzDealer.net), the business-to-business site of National City’s Dealer Finance Group, also continues to provide rates, forms, and free e-mail boxes for the company’s dealers.

According to the comapny, the CreditOnline Network helps lenders provide faster credit decisions and faster service because it reduces data entry and eliminates faxing documents back and forth. It can also mean increased booking ratios, and stronger relationships with the lender’s dealer customers.

The Network provides a single interface into a lender’s credit processing system and allows it to accept credit applications from many sources electronically, including the lender’s Web site, participating dealer Web sites, and other consumer Web sites.

Currently, the CreditOnline Network consists of more than 30 banks and finance companies, as well as fax connection to hundreds of additional lenders. The Network lenders are located throughout the United States and Canada.

About Credit Online, Inc.

Credit Online is the e-commerce subsidiary of First American CMSI. The company credit-enables business-to-business transactions through its Internet gateway and its CreditConnection technology. Credit Online’s technology electronically connects businesses that are credit originators (such as automotive dealers) to credit bureaus and multiple funding sources or "electronic" lenders throughout the United States and Canada via the Internet. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, expediting the credit application approval process from days to minutes.

Headquartered in Annapolis Junction, Md., First American CMSI licenses credit-decisioning systems for consumer and business credit that have been the choice of North America’s largest lending institutions. For more information, visit www.cmsinc.com.

About The First American Corporation

Tracing its history to 1889, The First American Corporation, is a diversified provider of business information and related products and services. The corporation’s three primary business segments include: title information and services; real estate information and services, which includes mortgage information services and database information and services; and consumer information and services, which provides automotive, subprime and direct-to-consumer credit reporting; direct-to-consumer public records reporting, resident screening; pre-employment screening; automotive title administration; property and automotive insurance tracking services; property and casualty insurance; home warranties; investment advisory; and trust and banking services. Information about First American can be found at www.firstam.com.

About National City Corporation

National City Corporation is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio and is a financial holding company. The company operates through a distribution network in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois, and in selected national markets. Its primary businesses include commercial and retail banking, consumer finance, asset management, mortgage financing and servicing, and card processing. National City’s website can be found at www.nationalcity.com.