Online broker E-LOAN, which just launched its initial public offering, was recently picked to run the mortgage center on Bank One's new branchless online entity, WingspanBank.com. What those two events have to do with one another is that all the pioneering E-LOAN has done on the bleeding edge of technology and marketing is beginning to pay off.

Chicago-based Bank One, the third largest bank provider of home-equity loans and the largest provider of credit cards online, has reorganized its call center and Internet efforts under its First USA credit card subsidiary. Bank One's existing website recently went through a makeover entirely separate from the launch of WingspanBank.com. Bankone.com will continue to operate in concert with Bank One's existing branch structure and concentration on its midwest markets, whereas WingSpan Bank will operate without branches for consumers who want to conduct all their banking online.

Designed to compete head to head for national presence with such Internet-only banks as NetBank.com, WingspanBank.com offers a full line of financial services such as online bill payment, insurance, investment services and a full line of loan products including home equity loans, credit cards, and installment loans as well as mortgages. "If your bank could start over, this is what it would be," WingSpanBank.com proclaims on its homepage.

The Application Center at WingspanBank allows a customer to apply for checking, bill payment, CDs, a credit card, installment loans, and investment services with a single application and only one credit report. The consumer receives an answer online.

For home equity loans, Wingspan Bank offers Bank One's own streamlined loan application capable of giving consumers in 50 states conditional approval within 50 seconds after they hit the submit button. For its insurance offerings, Wingspan Bank has a number of leading carriers as its strategic partners. The Mortgage Marketplace at WingSpan Bank offers access to a number of mortgage lenders through E-LOAN.

Commented Doug Galen, E-LOAN's vice president for business development, "Bank One is a real visionary of the Internet, and Wingspan is just another example of that. Calling Bank One a leader in furthering consumer choice on the Internet, he said Bank One was "taking a brave step in offering to their customers best-of-breed products and services that aren't just their own."

Before awarding the mortgage presence to E-LOAN, Bank One conducted an extensive onsite due diligence process, said Mr. Galen, "We made a demo site for Bank One just after our first meeting with them. I think our ability to create high-quality co-branded sites quickly -- which we've developed through working with over 40 distribution partners like Yahoo and E*Trade -- helped us cement the partnership with Bank One."

With the rise in interest rates, the market is scarcely a warm bath for mortgage websites these days. The heady days of the refi boom are over, and some of the online players are willing to admit that business has fallen off. But companies like E-LOAN have become increasingly efficient and useful parts of the mortgage lending engine. Now that they have developed staying power, there is little room to doubt that headier days lie ahead for them.

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Published: June 30, 1999

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