Founding and Early History

• Janina Pawlowski and Chris Larsen founded E-Loan in 1997 based on $5.5 million in initial funding. The company's founding focus was originating and brokering mortgage loans directly to consumers over the Internet. The initial website allowed customers to compare mortgage rates and shop for the most competitive offers based on a program called E-Track. In 1998, Pawlowski and Larsen sold a 23 percent stake in the company to Sequoia Capital, Softbank and Yahoo for $25.4 million.
  
  

Current Ownership

• E Loan is currently a subsidiary of Banco Popular North America. Banco Popular North America is chartered in New York State and is a subsidiary of Popular, Inc. Popular has operations in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Latin America and in the Caribbean.
  
  

Current Products

• E-Loan ceased offering new loans in 2008 due to poor financial results and the downturn in the United States economy. Their website still lists loan products, but search results are directed to third party sites such as Lending Tree. E-Loan's current financial products include savings accounts and certificates of deposit.
  
  

Privacy

• From inception, E-Loan has been sensitive to the privacy needs of its customers. According to E-Loan's website in June 2009, E-Loan was ranked, "as one of the Top 20 Most Trusted Companies for Privacy in America." E-Loan also had high ratings in a survey by The Customer Respect Group.
  
  

Awards

• E-Loan has won awards and rankings such as the number one mortgage website in 2008 by Keynote Web Excellence, number one for customer respect in 2006 by The Customer Respect Group and number 3 in privacy out of major corporations by The Customer Respect Group. E-Loan also received recognition for their fast and easy website.
  
  

Licenses

• E-Loan has mortgage licenses in most U.S. states and is approved by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They can originate auto loans in all states except Hawaii, Alaska, Mississippi and Wisconsin.
  
  

Tools

• In addition to financial services, E-Loan offers financial tools and calculators on their website. These tools include mortgage and refinancing tools, home equity tools, auto financing tools and debt and credit tools.