Student loan applications can now be signed, sealed, and delivered online with the use of the electronic signature process offered by Texas Guaranteed (TG) and Wells Fargo Education Financial Services (EFS).
"Partnerships have always been essential to TG, and we're excited that Wells Fargo is the first lender to partner with us in implementing electronic signature capabilities through TG Loans By Web," said Kim Alexander, TG's vice president for customer focus. "It's important for us to meet students' expectations for online, timely loan processing, and adding e-signature interfaces enables us to do that."
Electronic signature eliminates mail delays associated with traditional loan applications. Students simply use the Personal Identification Number (PIN) provided to them by the Department of Education, along with their Social Security Number and birth date, to authenticate their identity and sign their Master Promissory Note (MPN) online. As established by the electronic signature bill in October 2000, these electronically-signed documents have the same legal authority as paper documents.
Vickie Tanner, TG's assistant vice president for customer services, indicates that TG's Loans By Web tool facilitates a seamless data exchange with the web site of any lender who has developed an e-signature process. Once a student has guaranteed his or her loan on Loans By Web, the student who has chosen a lender that provides an e-signature process then has the option to be routed to their lender's e-signature web address.
"Wells Fargo is pleased to be the first to establish an e-signature solution with TG as well as one of the first lenders to offer this fast, convenient service to students nationwide," said Jack Falks, vice president of sales for Wells Fargo EFS. "We try to make the education financing process as easy as possible so students can spend more time focusing on school." Falks indicated that Wells Fargo EFS also plans to offer electronic signature for other applications and services, including parent loans and private loans.
May 23, 2000 - Full year results to 31 March 2000 further growth from Marks & Spencer Financial Services
New life & pensions policies increased by 78% - Total new annualised premium income for Life & Pensions almost doubled topping £8 million mark - New advances for Personal Loans up 13%
Financial review
The retail side of Financial Services*, Marks & Spencer Financial Services saw pre tax profits increase by 15% to £106.6m. This increase was partly offset by a reduction in the profit of our captive insurance company as a result of volatility in the gilts market compared to the previous year. As a consequence the net result was up 5% to £115.9m for Financial Services overall.
New business volumes increased during the period particularly in personal lending, life assurance and personal pensions. This can be attributed to continuing to build on our low cost, easy to understand, value for money ethic and reinforcing our position as one of the best value for money providers of financial services within the industry.
Key product areas
During the year we successfully re-priced our pension product to comply with a new Stakeholder friendly charging structure offering customers one of the most competitively priced pension products currently available in the market place.
A further reduction in term assurance rates as well as the launch of an Over 50s Guaranteed Protection Plan reinforces our position as one of the most competitively priced providers of life & pensions products. New life & pensions policies increased by 78%, with 30,000 new policies being added over the year, taking in force policies to over 58,000.
In personal loans new advances increased 13% to £905m. We were associated with OneSwoop.com, the first pan-European on-line car buying service. This investment represents a further step into e-commerce and allows M&SFS to offer personal loans direct to the customer as part of the OneSwoop.com deal.
In savings and investments, whilst unit trust sales decreased, funds under management increased by 6% to £1166m.
Work also continues on strengthening the benefits of the Marks & Spencer Account Card to ensure it remains one of the UK's most widely held store cards. Account Card profit increased by 9% to over £38m.
STRATEGY
The Financial Services business' core strategic objective is to maximise shareholder value. It aims to achieve this through its vision to be the most trusted financial services company in the UK, by delivering good value products, high standards of service, with honesty and fair dealing. We aim to achieve our vision through new product development and enhancements to the current product portfolio, creating a robust business that can continue to develop its contribution to Group profits.
Changes to the Account Card - the development of a range of incentives to maximise the value of the Account Card will ensure it remains the payment method of choice for the majority of current holders. We have recently announced a substantial reduction in the APR of our Account Card to 18.9% making it as competitive as the most widely used credit cards and 7.5% lower than the average store card. Additionally, commission free foreign exchange delivered direct to customers' homes is now available to all Account Card holders along with a series of discount vouchers sent to customers throughout the year.
New product development - we continue to research possible new product areas that we believe will provide our customers with better value than is currently available in the marketplace. We have announced our intention to enter the general insurance market this autumn as part of this drive. A home and contents policy is the first in an anticipated range of general insurance products to be rolled out over the next few years. From launch the product will be available via the telephone and over the internet, with customers able to access a full quotation service and make applications on-line.
New distribution channels - we are piloting a new Financial Services Centre within three stores for face to face selling and servicing of products, with two more stores added over the coming months. We have also seen a significant increase in sales volumes through our web site and we will continue to develop this channel of distribution. However, we do not intend to neglect the existing successful channels of direct mail, telephone, and in-store distribution where we also have plans to expand our presence.