Stewart Mortgage Information Partners with Mortgage Risk

HOUSTON, Aug. 14, 2001 /PRNewswire/ -- Stewart Mortgage Information (SMI), a subsidiary of Stewart Information Services Corp. ( NYSE:STC), recently announced a strategic alliance with Mortgage Risk Assessment Corp. (MRAC) that allows SMI customers electronic access to MRAC's Home Price Analyzer™ statistical home valuation tool. An alternative to a full appraisal or a broker price opinion (BPO), the Home Price Analyzer utilizes home price indexes (HPI) and spatial analysis to determine property value and also provides confidence ratings and prior sale alerts for added protection against fraud.

SMI customers requesting this automated valuation model (AVM) can electronically order and receive the Home Price Analyzer product through a secure, password protected Website. By partnering with MRAC, SMI customers now have access to one of the industry's largest property databases combined with MRAC's advanced modeling techniques.

In announcing the partnership, Donald O'Neill, SMI president and CEO said, "SMI's relationship with MRAC allows us to offer our customers a premier AVM product through a proven industry leader."

"We are very excited about our relationship with SMI," said Chuck Ramsey, CEO of Mortgage Risk. "I believe we can provide the mortgage industry with an unmatched group of automated mortgage services and continue to make the industry even more efficient."

About MRAC

MRAC ( www.Mortgagerisk.com ) was formed in 1992 to provide high-quality proprietary information to participants in all sectors of the mortgage industry. MRAC's residential database is the largest in the industry, including over 53 million properties in 1,300 counties within 46 states plus Washington, D.C., representing 80 percent of the nation's housing stock. Among its clients for its valuation models are the leading rating agencies, four of the top five mortgage servicers, and major Wall Street firms. Besides its valuation software, MRAC provides software with default, prepayment, and pricing models for risk management as well as lists ( www.Mortgagelists.com ) for direct mail and telemarketing.

About SMI

Incorporated in 1994, Stewart Mortgage Information ( www.smiservices.com ) is a leading provider of mortgage information and services that accelerate loan origination and improve the performance of the post-closing function. SMI offers its services to lenders based on the life cycle of the loan process -- from origination through post-closing to servicing. Origination services include credit reports, title information and insurance, flood determinations, collateral assessments, document preparation, centralized funding and other real estate information. The post-production solutions include post-closing services, assignments, document retrieval, lien recordation, pool certification, full legal review, lien release and research.

About Stewart

Stewart Information Services Corporation is a technology driven, strategically competitive, global real estate information company. Stewart provides title insurance and related information services through more than 5,600 issuing locations in the United States and several international markets. Stewart meets the needs of the real estate and mortgage industries through the delivery of information services required for settlement using e-commerce. These services include title reports, flood determinations, property appraisals, surveys, document preparation, property reports and background checks. Stewart also supplies post-closing services to lenders, automated county clerk land records and GIS for governmental entities. Stewart provides expertise in tax-deferred exchanges. More information about Stewart can be found at www.stewart.com.

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