Fidelity Gains Foothold in Puerto Rico with Doral Financial Contract.

San Juan, PR-Doral Financial Corp., Puerto Rico's largest banking institution, has signed a five-year contract with Fidelity National Financial Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., to service the bank's portfolio of approximately 150,000 mortgage loans using Fidelity's comprehensive servicing system.

"It's going to be a very significant contract for Doral since we anticipate it is going to help us achieve efficiency in servicing portfolios without increasing servicing costs," said Ricardo Melendez, chief financial officer/executive vice president of Doral Financial here.

"We analyzed the Fidelity system and others in the industry and chose Fidelity because of their current capability, their demonstration of understanding our business, and ability to deliver solutions and enhancements to the system."

The contract will also present Doral with the opportunity to expand its operations in the United States and Puerto Rico.

Mr. Melendez said Fidelity's system is known for its stability, reliability and ability to perform successful conversions.

"Working with Fidelity will help us in offering new products from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In conjunction, a bigger company provides the technology you need to support the product. Sometimes smaller vendors have a lack of synchronization. A bigger vendor is more in sync with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. That is very important."

Doral Financial provides a multitude of services to the mortgage and financial industries, including the origination and servicing of residential mortgages, construction, commercial and consumer loans, and retail banking through Doral Bank, Puerto Rico's largest growing commercial bank.