E-LOAN Ranked 'Best Overall' in Financial Services Customer Respect Study

PLEASANTON, CA – E-LOAN® (Nasdaq: EELN), an online consumer direct lender, today announced that it received the overall highest rating in the First Quarter 2005 Online Customer Respect Study of North America’s largest financial services firms.

The independent study conducted by The Customer Respect Group, an international research and consulting firm that focuses on how corporations treat their customers online, reported that E-LOAN’s Consumer Respect Index rating was the highest among all traditional and Internet-based financial services firms included in the survey. The Customer Respect Index is a qualitative and quantitative in-depth analysis and independent measure of a customer’s online experience when interacting with companies via the Internet.

Overall, financial firms improved their performance over the past year. However, in the area of privacy — an area consumers continually report as the single most important area when choosing a financial services provider — financial services firms, excluding E-LOAN, have failed to perform, with nearly half of financial services firms sharing personal data without permission.

“When consumers consider working with financial services companies, customer respect is a major factor,” said Terry Golesworthy, President of The Customer Respect Group. “In our study, E-LOAN consistently scored high in all areas of customer respect, including privacy. We applaud E-LOAN’s commitment to its customers.”

“E-LOAN is a company that was founded on the fundamental belief that consumers deserve better,” said Mark Lefanowicz, Chief Executive Officer of E-LOAN. “In our experience, consumers are looking for a lending partner that they can trust. We continually have honored that covenant by offering exceptional customer service and adhering to the strictest of consumer privacy protection standards.”

Since its inception, E-LOAN has been working on behalf of consumers to transform the lending industry, providing consumers with a more open, fair and honest lending experience. As a staunch consumer advocate, E-LOAN played an integral role in the legislative battle to provide consumers access to their credit scores, the most important factor in determining whether a consumer is approved for a loan and at what rate.

In June 2002, E-LOAN co-founded Californians for Privacy Now (CFPN), a coalition dedicated to requiring financial services companies to first obtain consumers’ consent before sharing their information with third parties and affiliates. As a result, E-LOAN helped facilitate the California legislature’s passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy protection law in the nation.