Black Knight Financial Services, Inc. a leading provider of integrated technology, data and analytics to the mortgage and real estate industries, announced that Santander Bank, N.A. has signed a contract to implement Black Knight's LoanSphere Empower loan origination system to support originations of first and second mortgages. Santander Bank is consolidating the origination technologies for its retail, wholesale and home equity channels onto the Empower platform in an effort to improve quality, efficiency and risk management.

"We chose to work with Black Knight to help us mitigate risk by eliminating the need to update and maintain multiple origination systems to support new and changing regulatory requirements," said Stephen Adamo, U.S. Head of Mortgage Banking and Consumer Underwriting for Santander Bank. "In addition, Empower will enhance our customers' experience by providing them with anytime, anywhere access to manage documents and loan status information through the system's online tools."

Santander Bank is one of the country's top retail banks by deposits and a wholly owned subsidiary of Banco Santander, one of the most respected banking groups in the world.

Empower supports retail, wholesale and consumer direct lending channels, and delivers the functionality to electronically capture and process data for every facet of the loan origination process. The loan origination system can be hosted by Black Knight at its data center or self-hosted by a lender.

"We look forward to helping Santander Bank use Empower to support its expanding mortgage and home equity lending operations," said Jerry Halbrook, president of Black Knight's Origination Technologies division. "With a full suite of integrated technology and data solutions across the entire loan lifecycle, Black Knight has a proven track record of helping lenders with regulatory requirements, collaborating with clients on solutions and providing technological support and insight to support ongoing industry changes."