ALLTEL To Provide Data Processing Services for Ford Financial

    Business Editors/Technology Writers

    LITTLE ROCK, Ark.--March 26, 2001--ALLTEL will provide data processing services for Ford Financial's eight million North American loan/lease accounts, strengthening ALLTEL's position as a worldwide leader in lending automation. The two companies have worked together for the past two years to develop and implement a model automotive receivables financial lease and lending system.
    Under the agreement, ALLTEL will be an application service provider (ASP) for Ford Financial, providing a high-volume capable, low-cost system to meet the demands of a rapidly growing automotive finance market. The system retired the lease receivable product utilized by Ford's PRIMUS brand in the United States and Canada for the past 10 years. Ford Financial is scheduled to convert all of its United States accounts to the new system by mid-year 2002.
    Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
    "The work we have delivered with Ford Financial is some of the most exciting and challenging work performed by ALLTEL in the past 10 years," said Jeff Fox, president of ALLTEL Information Services. "The application service provider agreement further strengthens this partnership. This project continues our objective to be the worldwide leader in lending automation."
    The automotive finance application service provider processing will be handled through ALLTEL's Little Rock technology center.
    "The launch represents a significant milestone toward the completion of the common receivable business platform for the North American business units and establishes the industry's first commercial, combined loan and lease processing platform," said Ernie Hawke, vice president, transformation project with Ford Financial.
    The automotive finance application development project and the ASP agreement represent a significant expansion of ALLTEL's long-term relationship with PRIMUS, Ford Financial's automotive financial services subsidiary that serves dealers and customers outside the Ford franchise system, and with Fairlane Credit, Ford Financial's specialty finance affiliate.
    "Automotive finance is one of the fastest growing segments of the financial services industry," said Christine Pratt, senior analyst for consumer credit with TowerGroup. "It is currently a $652 billion industry and is projected to be an $800 billion industry by 2005. Companies, like Ford and ALLTEL, that can combine industry expertise with a new way of delivering next generation technology solutions will gain competitive advantage in today's market."
    According to Fox, ALLTEL's automotive finance ASP offering combines ALLTEL Information Services' 32 years of experience in providing information technology outsourcing to the financial services industry. "ALLTEL's outsourcing experience illustrates a proven history as an application services provider," Fox said.
    Ford Financial is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company and is the world's largest automotive finance company. Now in its 42nd year, Ford Financial provides vehicle financing in 40 countries to more than 10 million customers and 12,000 automotive dealers.
    Forty-eight of the top 50 U.S. banks rely on ALLTEL's products and services. ALLTEL provides loan servicing automation for more than 20 million mortgage loans, with balances exceeding $2 trillion. Additionally, more than 34 percent of the total dollar volume of outstanding U.S. consumer loans is processed on ALLTEL Information Services' software applications.