Extraco Banks Selects Empower, Black Knight's High-Performance LOS, to Drive Growth in Digital Mortgage Operations

-  Extraco Banks will use Empower to spearhead its move into the digital lending arena

-  The cloud-based Empower LOS and its full digital ecosystem, will help the bank automate manual processes and allow loan officers to communicate better with borrowers

-  The bank will also leverage the award-winning content library within the Surefire CRM tool to engage borrowers with timely, relevant outreach to strengthen customer relationships

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., March 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE:BKI) announced today that Extraco Banks, the largest and most comprehensive locally owned bank between Dallas and Austin, Texas, has signed a contract to implement the Empower loan origination system (LOS). The company selected Empower for its exceptional digital mortgage capabilities, and will also use Black Knight's Surefire CRM and mortgage marketing engine to elevate the customer experience and to help create customers for life.

"Extraco has been serving Central Texas for more than 120 years, and the Empower LOS will help us build an exciting digital future on the foundation of more than a century of success," said Jake Coleman, senior vice president and director of mortgage at Extraco Banks. "Empower and its integrated solutions were exactly what we were looking for to move our mortgage operations into the digital sphere. By automating time-consuming, tedious tasks with Black Knight's capabilities, our loan officers can focus more time on their customers and the digital tools allow them to stay more fully connected with our borrowers at every step of the loan process."

The Empower LOS provides Extraco Banks with a high-performance, fully integrated LOS that can support the bank's workflows without the need to maintain its own origination technology systems, pay recurring hosting costs or deal with deploying costly custom integrations. Black Knight's digital ecosystem gives Extraco access to a suite of seamlessly integrated end-to-end mortgage technology, data and analytics solutions to help fuel digital lending and drive operational savings.

Additionally, Extraco will have access to the Surefire CRM and mortgage marketing engine, which features tools that help thousands of mortgage professionals win new business, drive repeat business and earn the right to referral business. With intuitive "set-it-and-forget-it" workflows, the Surefire CRM engages borrowers by automatically sending top-rated mortgage content tailored to the borrower's individual loan milestones. With Surefire, mortgage professionals can effortlessly maintain and deepen their connections with borrowers, referrals, brokers and real estate agents all through one powerful platform.

With the Empower LOS platform, Extraco will gain exceptional technological capabilities, including integration with the industry's leading product and pricing engine from Optimal Blue, a division of Black Knight; a digital point-of-sale solution that guides the borrower through the mortgage application process and allows the loan officer to follow along; machine-learning technology for document classification and indexing; a robust digital closing solution that automatically determines the best way to close a loan and features eDelivery and eSign capabilities; a comprehensive fee service to help mitigate fee cures; robust property tax data; automated compliance validation testing; flood zone determination services and reporting; and an actionable intelligence solution that delivers instant access to information from multiple data sources to help forecast and monitor pipeline, productivity, cycle time and pull-through.

"Extraco Banks is already one of Central Texas's most renowned names in banking, and Black Knight is proud to help them spearhead this strategic shift into the digital lending sphere," said Rich Gagliano, president, Black Knight Origination Technologies. "By moving their legacy manual processes into the advanced and automated Empower ecosystem, Extraco will be able to streamline its business, help drive growth and provide even greater benefits for its customers and employees."

About Black Knight

Black Knight, Inc. (NYSE:BKI) is an award-winning software, data and analytics company that drives innovation in the mortgage lending and servicing and real estate industries, as well as the capital and secondary markets. Businesses leverage our robust, integrated solutions across the entire homeownership life cycle to help retain existing customers, gain new customers, mitigate risk and operate more effectively.

Our clients rely on our proven, comprehensive, scalable products and our unwavering commitment to delivering superior client support to achieve their strategic goals and better serve their customers. For more information on Black Knight, please visit www.blackknightinc.com.

ABOUT EXTRACO BANKS®

Extraco Banks and its affiliate companies are dedicated to building people, businesses and communities. Since the Great Recession, Extraco has extended over $2 billion in loans to 25,000 customers, while financially supporting over 1,275 community organizations working to create economic vibrancy, job growth and overall quality of life to our communities across central Texas. Founded as a cotton warehousing company, Extraco, with more than $2 billion in assets, is the most comprehensive locally owned bank between Dallas and Austin, serving our customers' banking, mortgage, insurance and wealth & trust needs with creative and innovative excellence. Learn more at: https://www.extracobanks.com/.

SOURCE Black Knight, Inc.