Ellie Mae's ePASS Network Wins Mortgage Technology's Synergy Award

One third of nation's $3 trillion loans pass through this widely accessible transaction network for lenders, brokers and service providers

Dublin, CA—October 23, 2006—Ellie Mae, an award winning provider of innovative software and services for the mortgage industry, has announced that its ePASS® Network has just received Mortgage Technology magazine's prestigious 2006 Synergy Award, an honor given annually to a technology initiative or alliance that advances the cause of seamless end-to-end e-commerce in the mortgage industry.

The ePASS Network has effectively taken the highly fragmented mortgage industry and made it accessible via one interconnected, electronic network conveniently embedded in several of the industry's most-used loan origination systems, including Encompass®, Genesis 2000® and Contour™.

Today, one third of the nation's $3 trillion loans pass through the ePASS Network, and on any given day, mortgage brokers use Ellie Mae's electronic transaction platform to transmit 4,000 loan files per hour to wholesale lenders, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, credit bureaus, title companies, and others.

Industry professionals agree on the positive impact the ePASS Network has had on the mortgage industry. The president of Carteret, Eric Weinstein, says, "The ePASS Network is the best thing to happen to the mortgage industry since yield spread was invented."

The ePASS Network provides a widely adopted, efficient solution to streamline transactions among the thousands of dispersed entities is the mortgage industry. Without dependence on inefficient faxes, couriers and phones, ePASS now provides seamless electronic connectivity for all key members of the multi-stepped mortgage transaction, including brokers, lenders, investors, and servicers. The ePASS Network empowers users to easily order services or submit loans to lenders, streamlining and automating transactions with the GSEs, 45 of the nation's leading wholesale and correspondent lenders, over 88,000 appraisers and 2,200 service providers including credit, title, flood, insurance, and document providers. It also provides lenders an efficient way of transacting with all of the nation's 50,000 mortgage brokers.

ePASS not only provides the benefit of business-to-business e-commerce to everyone in the mortgage chain, but it also enables users to eliminate redundant work, reduce origination costs, close loans faster, and provide secure data transmission for sensitive consumer information in compliance with Gramm-Leach-Bliley safeguards.

With ePASS, lenders can receive loans electronically in any format, including DU format, MISMO, PDF, or other XML formats. Originators can transmit loans through a link to the lender's wholesale website or directly into the lender's processing system. It features secure, seamless connectivity with GSEs, lenders and settlement service providers.

The ePASS Network also distinguishes itself in its ability to enable a bi-directional feed of information. One of the most recent and greatest advances is bidirectional feed from Fannie Mae to the ePASS Network. ePASS now has the unique ability to bring back "codified findings", the programmatic information about the stipulations or conditions. ePASS drives these intelligently back into the Encompass Mortgage Automation System such that the user can start clearing conditions. In this fashion, the user knows what the condition is tied to whether it's something that needs a settlement service order, a bank statement, proof of income from the user, etc. This is far more effective than looking at a piece of paper or screen scraping since there is no need to have a paper DO result to look at in order to clear conditions. ePASS eliminates that.

Bi-directional feed is also active with companies like Freddie Mac, DocMagic, DocuTech, ComplianceEase, as well as with thousands of credit and settlement service providers.

"We knew that connectivity among all key players was essential in today's marketplace," explains Ellie Mae's chief strategy officer, Jonathan Corr. "We're proud to be recognized for providing that much-needed synergy. We are working hard to advance the industry and stay on the leading edge."

About Ellie Mae, Inc.
Ellie Mae is an award-winning provider of software and services for the mortgage industry, which was recently named to the Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing private companies. Ellie Mae provides a comprehensive line of products and services including the company's flagship Encompass® mortgage automation system, Contour™ and Genesis 2000® loan origination software, Encompass Websites™ for mortgage brokers, and Ellie Mae Docs™ services for document processing. Ellie Mae's ePASS® Network is the mortgage industry's online transaction platform enabling all mortgage companies in the United States to easily do business online with dozens of leading lenders and thousands of settlement service providers. Ellie Mae is based in Dublin, California. To learn more about Ellie Mae, visit www.elliemae.com or call (888) 955-9100.

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Ellie Mae, Encompass, ePASS, and Genesis 2000 are registered trademarks, and Contour, Executive Websites, and Ellie Mae Docs are trademarks, of Ellie Mae, Inc. All rights reserved.