Platinum Community Bank has recently opened a de novo branch in Ocala, Fla., as part of its strategy to diversify the growing bank's portfolio and expand its commercial lending business.

"We have built an experienced commercial lending team which enables us to be highly competitive in the markets we serve. However, we came to realize that with continued growth and the further diversification of our loan portfolio we would not be equipped with the analytical tools necessary to support our new operations," said Jim Hogan, Senior Credit Officer, Platinum Community Bank. "With the WebEquity system we are able to more efficiently manage uniform, thorough credit analysis and facilitate responsive decisioning."

"By selecting WebEquity, Platinum Community Bank has gained a single lending solution that will scale to help the institution manage credit quality and portfolio risk as it continues to expand," said Doug McGregor, CEO of WebEquity Solutions. "WebEquity is an attractive solution for lending institutions of all sizes and we are very excited to work with Platinum Community Bank as they grow their franchise."

Platinum Community Bank evaluated five lending software packages before choosing WebEquity for its comprehensive functionality in the areas of spreading financials, tracking customer relationships, managing workflows and exception tracking. The bank also recognized that WebEquity's on-demand model offers distinct advantages over the alternatives. A fully hosted solution, WebEquity: eliminates the need to incur the expense of extensive internal technology support and hardware acquisition; doesn't require any software installation; provides anywhere access for all users; and, puts the responsibility for software upgrades in the hands of the Company.

"WebEquity's on-demand and pay-by-use model is very attractive for an institution of our size which has aggressive growth plans," added Jim Hogan. "It provides us with a robust commercial lending solution we can afford today and into the future; there is not a big up-front capital investment and the cost will continue to align with the size of our business."

WebEquity is an on-demand, software as a service (SaaS) offering which significantly reduces the demand on a bank's IT resources, and enables lenders to access their loan information from anywhere via a Web browser. Its flexible design also allows an institution to setup the software to support the bank's specific policies and lending guidelines such as credit analysis, risk ratings and approval processes. WebEquity provides the unique benefit of a single system that works for all loan types including commercial, agriculture, small business, commercial real estate, construction and consumer credits; helping an institution better manage consistent, uniform lending practices across the entire organization.