Laurentian Bank, an important player in the Quebec residential mortgage market, is in line to become the fourth financial institution in the province to adopt Assyst Real Estate.

"This agreement with Laurentian Bank advances our position as the leader in electronic mortgage processing in Quebec, where our solution has been a great success since it was launched," said Francois Cote, President and Chief Executive Officer of Emergis. "It also points to the interest that Assyst Real Estate is generating among the major Canadian banks, as we launch the solution nationally."

Upon signature of a final five-year agreement, the solution would be offered progressively to Laurentian Bank branches beginning in November 2007, allowing bank employees to send mortgage instructions to notaries electronically. As well, when the agreement comes into effect, Emergis expects to be processing up to 75% of residential mortgage mandates in Quebec.

"We want to capitalize on the leadership, reliability and extensive reach of the Emergis solution as we prepare to automate our mortgage processing activities," said Luc Bernard, Executive Vice-President, Retail Financial Services and SME of Laurentian Bank. "Assyst Real Estate will help make our processes more efficient and enable us to enhance the quality of service we offer to our customers."

Emergis' bilingual Assyst Real Estate mortgage solution is designed to facilitate instructing, funding and reporting of mortgage loans for lenders and the legal community. With it, lenders can send mortgage instructions electronically to notaries, lawyers and their staff in real time. In turn, these professionals can complete mortgage transactions from end to end online, in a more secure and confidential manner. Assyst Real Estate speeds up the processing of transactions, reduces paperwork, cuts back on costs and reduces the risk of clerical error.

Emergis manages the enrolment of notaries and lawyers on the mortgage platform and collects fees based on their usage of the solution to complete residential mortgage transactions. Since Emergis launched its mortgage solution, more than 80% of real estate notaries in Quebec have adopted the solution.

As part of the national launch of Assyst Real Estate in partnership with a major Canadian bank, Emergis will deploy its solution in British Columbia and Ontario over the summer, in the Western provinces before the end of 2007 and in the Atlantic provinces during 2008. These deployments will be supported by an adoption program designed to increase the number of notaries and lawyers who use the solution in each region. As part of this program, Emergis has signed agreements with software suppliers to the legal community, such as RemoteLaw - now OneMove Technologies - and Pro-Suite in British Columbia, as well as Do Process Software in Ontario.