Thornburg Mortgage, Inc. (NYSE: TMA) and Mortgage Cadence®, a leading provider of enterprise lending solutions (ELS), today announced that Thornburg Mortgage launched Mortgage Cadence to enhance its overall business scalability and business processes through increased automation.

Thornburg Mortgage, a nationwide single-family residential mortgage lender, uses an outsourcing model for much of its direct loan origination process to achieve high internal loan-to-employee output and optimized productivity, while maintaining its commitment to excellent customer service. With the implementation of Mortgage Cadence, Thornburg Mortgage anticipates a cost benefit of approximately $6 million over the next five years while significantly reducing per-loan review time and physical cost expenses, decreasing risk factors, and setting the stage for new capabilities.

Previously, Thornburg Mortgage's internal loan review process was mostly manual, which limited its ability to increase efficiencies and productivity. Working with Mortgage Cadence's technology consulting division (3t Systems) and utilizing their best practices paradigm called MC POM (Mortgage Cadence Process Optimization Methodology) to assess its business lending systems, 136 aggregated activities out of approximately 170 were identified as opportunities for process improvement and cost reductions. Additionally, 110 of these recognized activities could be either partially or fully automated through Mortgage Cadence BRMS, the embedded business rule management system. This system also manages areas such as workflow, data validation, events/alerts and security.

By utilizing Mortgage Cadence's service oriented architecture, Thornburg Mortgage expanded its paperless lending environment – utilizing embedded business rules, custom application interfaces and a custom integrated imaging system. In addition, correspondent lenders and mortgage brokers now have direct access to the company's lending platform via Web services. By invoking open architecture within Mortgage Cadence Software Developer Kit (MC SDK), these Web services provided Thornburg Mortgage the ability to build a customized Web site with unique brand and look and feel specific to Thornburg. Under the hood the services automatically leveraged preconfigured business rules, automation and common data in Mortgage Cadence. During the implementation process, Thornburg Mortgage has worked with Mortgage Cadence to customize a software system that will support its operating model.

Anne Beckett, senior vice president of loan operations for Thornburg Mortgage, cites Mortgage Cadence's technology capabilities and roadmap as a key differentiator in their selection process. "Mortgage Cadence's automated workflow is what initially sold us on the product. Mortgage Cadence gives us the ability to track and automate a loan through the entire loan cycle. This ability will save our correspondents countless hours, increase our overall customer satisfaction and retention, and ultimately lead to more business in the future. It is a great fit for our business strategy," Beckett said.

Additionally, Maxine Swisa, executive vice president and chief information officer for Thornburg, expressed the company's overall satisfaction with the product. "Everyone is excited with what this additional technology means for our company. And with the ever evolving mortgage landscape, we are confident that we will be able to quickly adapt and grow our business."

Thornburg Mortgage projects departmental cost savings resulting from Mortgage Cadence's process improvements in both its front and back office. These cost savings stem primarily from the reduction or elimination of manual tasks and operational expenses related to new loan setup, faxing, office supplies and courier services – a direct result of the integrated imaging capabilities. There are also additional benefits relating to easy document retrieval and storage. The balance of cost benefits comes from performance improvements in Thornburg Mortgage's pricing desk, information technology, processing underwriting, post-closing, and servicing areas. Furthermore, risk was significantly reduced or eliminated relating to loan files, data transfer, declined loans, intra-departmental communication and off-system calculations.

Altogether, Thornburg Mortgage anticipates it will experience a cost benefit of more than $3 million over the next three years and a cost benefit of almost $6 million over the next five years as highlighted earlier. The company estimates that for its correspondent lending activity alone it will experience a 23 percent cost reduction. There will also be an estimated reduction in cycle time of approximately 18 percent.


About Thornburg Mortgage
Thornburg Mortgage is a leading single-family residential mortgage lender focused principally on the jumbo segment of the adjustable rate mortgage market. Backed by a balance sheet of $34.5 billion in high quality assets, the company seeks to deliver attractive dividend income and steady growth for its shareholders by acquiring high quality mortgage-backed securities and growing its share of the mortgage loan origination business. Capitalizing on its innovative portfolio lending model, REIT tax structure and leading edge technology, Thornburg Mortgage is a highly efficient provider of specialized mortgage loan products for borrowers nationwide with excellent credit, and is positioned to become one of the top 50 mortgage lenders in the country. We invite you to visit the company's Web site at www.thornburgmortgage.com.

About Mortgage Cadence
Mortgage Cadence supplies mortgage lending platforms that enable companies to focus on profitability and superior service. Comprised of comprehensive end-to-end loan origination software at its core, a business rule management system (BRMS), workflow engine, product and pricing functionality, automated underwriting, imaging/electronic document management and document preparation services, the system gives companies the flexibility to readily adapt to industry changes and easily capitalize on new business opportunities. Built on an ever-evolving, SOA-based architecture, consisting of functionality to innovate the mortgage process, and an eye toward the eventual realization of e-Mortgages, Mortgage Cadence provides the last lending platform a company will ever need. To learn more, please visit us on the Web at http://www.mortgagecadence.com.