E-LOAN Named by Consumers and Industry Experts as One of America's Most Trusted Companies for Privacy

E-LOAN®, an online consumer direct lender, today announced that a national independent study of consumers conducted by TRUSTe and the Ponemon Institute ranked E-LOAN one of the top three most trusted companies for privacy in the United States, alongside worldwide brands Procter and Gamble and Hewlett-Packard. Companies were first ranked by consumers as part of an unaided recall survey. The top 20 finalists then participated in a further review of their policies, practices and execution by an independent expert panel. This expert panel determined that P&G, HP and E-LOAN best upheld the trust each company has earned from its customers.

“At E-LOAN, we firmly believe that the only way to truly earn a consumer’s business is to first earn their trust,” said Tess Koleczek, chief privacy officer at E-LOAN. “As a company that has been fighting to protect consumers’ right to privacy since its inception, it is gratifying to have both consumers and industry experts respond so favorably and validate our efforts.”

“Protecting consumers’ financial privacy has always been a business priority for E-LOAN,” said Dr. Larry Ponemon, chairman of Ponemon Institute. “There are not many companies that have been as proactive as E-LOAN in demonstrating a commitment to the privacy rights of customers. In my opinion, E-LOAN is well deserving of this recognition from both consumers and privacy experts.”

“Our study found that to truly respect consumers’ privacy, companies need to incorporate privacy into every aspect of their business,” said Fran Maier, executive director and president of TRUSTe. “From respecting consumers choices about how to market to them and using the most secure technology available, to the way that their customer service representatives manage private information and respond to questions about privacy, it must be a core component of every customer interaction. E-LOAN has understood this from the beginning, which is why it continues to be recognized and rewarded for its strong commitment to consumer privacy.”

As a staunch consumer advocate, E-LOAN played an integral role in the legislative battle to provide consumers access to their credit scores, the most important factor in determining whether a consumer is approved for a loan and at what rate.

In June 2002, E-LOAN co-founded Californians for Privacy Now (CFPN), a coalition dedicated to requiring financial service companies to first obtain consumers’ consent before sharing their information with third parties and affiliates. As a result, E-LOAN helped facilitate the California legislature’s passage of the strongest consumer financial privacy protection law in the nation.

In September 2005, the finalists from this most recent survey were announced as: American Express, Amazon, Procter and Gamble, Hewlett-Packard, eBay, AOL, USPS, Dell, IBM, Earthlink, Google, Charles Schwab, Apple, Johnson & Johnson, WebMD, E-LOAN, WAMU, Federal Express, Yahoo!, USAA, and Walt Disney Corporation. Consumers were not given company names to rate; they were asked for the companies they considered noteworthy for their trustworthiness.