EP1317717A1

EP1317717A1 - System and method for remote access to investment product information

Info

Publication number: EP1317717A1
Application number: EP01966386A
Authority: EP
Inventors: John Trentos; Irene Eddy
Original assignee: GE Capital Markets Services Inc
Current assignee: GE Capital Markets Services Inc
Priority date: 2000-09-08
Filing date: 2001-08-28
Publication date: 2003-06-11
Also published as: JP2004528612A; AU2001286906A1; WO2002021311A2

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR REMOTE ACCESS TO INVESTMENT PRODUCT INFORMATION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system and method for providing convenient and remote access to investment product information, such as summary information and various related program and transactional documents pertaining to past and present investment products offered to investors. Background of the Invention

The Internet has sparked tremendous growth in the amount of information available at people's fingertips. As is well-known, such information includes online access to individuals' brokerage accounts for purposes of trading and obtaining information about their investments. Substantial efficiencies can be gained by disseminating investment information electronically via the Internet as opposed to traditional means of paper document delivery. However, to date, Institutional Investors have not benefited as much as retail investors from the growth of the Internet and its information distribution and access capabilities. There are several possible reasons for this. First, the nature and extent of information and documentation on financial products desired by Institutional Investors is far more complicated and sophisticated than consumer financial products, particularly given that the dollar value of a typical transaction is millions of dollars or greater. Second, the distribution channels for such products have been and continue to be distinct from those for consumer financial products. This is true because the trust developed through long-term personal relationships between Institutional Investors and broker/dealers is important to success in the institutional market. Financial products and services typically offered to Institutional Investors include asset-backed commercial paper ("ABCP"), mortgage-backed securities, other types of asset-backed securities, syndicated corporate loans and private placement corporate debt, lease and equipment placements and other sophisticated and complex financial investments. ABCP is sometimes offered through "conduits" administered by financial institutions that provide borrowers and sellers a source of low-cost funding and in turn provide high-quality investment opportunities for Institutional Investors.

The syndicated loan market evolved in the 1970s when large loan facilities were jointly originated and underwritten by a club of agent lenders (i.e., a "lending syndicate"). Although loan terms and structures were negotiable with the lending syndicate, club loans were expensive to borrowers and only marginally profitable to the lenders. With the development of the corporate bond market in the 1980s, corporate borrowers were able to access the capital markets directly. However, these debt facilities were typically not underwritten and terms and structures were invariably less flexible. Disruption of the corporate bond market in the late 1980s and early 1990s led corporate borrowers to seek a more stable and flexible source of debt financing in the form of the syndicated loan. In a syndicated loan transaction, the loan is typically negotiated with and underwritten by one or several lenders with full closing and/or commitment fees, and syndicated to many lenders with partial fees, thereby allowing underwriting lenders to generate a fee income and to shed some of their underwriting risk.

The domestic corporate loan and debt markets includes a number of participants performing various functions including marketing and origination, arranging and underwriting, ongoing loan administration and monitoring, loan syndication and/or debt placements, investment analysis, portfolio management and trading. Information needs within each of these functions center around quantitative and qualitative credit information, historical, interim and projected financial information, loan terms and conditions, and pricing information. Prior to the closing of a syndicated loan facility and/or private placement debt facility, such information and related documents are "living" in that they are not final and subject to several revisions. Some information may also be confidential (e.g., with respect to private companies), or material and non-public (e.g., in the case of public companies), and thus require secure accessibility. Furthermore, certain information may not be relevant for all functions and may therefore be made available to only a subset of parties that require selective accessibility. Once a corporate loan transaction is closed and funded, information and related documents need to be archived and controlled so that they may be referenced over the life of the loan facility. In addition, there are various federal regulatory requirements that may impact the manner in which corporate loans are offered and sold. The primary concern is that in order to be deemed a private offering, an offer or sale must not constitute general advertising or a general solicitation, and the investors targeted for such offer and sale must meet certain sophistication standards. One recognized standard for investor sophistication is the Securities and Exchange Commission's ("SEC") definition of Qualified Institutional Buyers ("QIBs").

The current methods of information management inadequately fulfill the needs of agent lenders and the Institutional Investor community, and make regulatory compliance tracking cumbersome and labor intensive. Agent lenders are required to use manual methods or separate unintegrated systems for information management. As a result, such information often requires double entry, is only partially captured and/or is incompatible between systems. For example, many agent lenders use contact management systems (such as Microsoft Outlook® and Symantec's ACT) which capture contact details, but do not capture investment appetite. Specialized software applications (such as Syntrack and LoanRunner®) capture contact detail, investment appetite and syndication status, but do not provide secure and selective access to information or information archives. Internet-based application service providers (such as Intralinks®) provide secure and selective access to information, but, among other things, do not provide information archiving or investor appetite functionality.

Accordingly, there exists a need for a system and method for agent lenders to manage the secure and selective distribution and archiving of information pertaining to the underwriting, closing and administration of investment products, such as syndicated loan and privately placed debt facilities. Such a system and method preferably should also allow the agent lenders to target their solicitations to a limited number of QIBs, ideally those with an appetite for the type of investment to be considered, and to provide such investors with historical information relating to closed and declined deals so as to enable them to more intelligently make decisions concerning currently offered deals. The QIBs should be provided with an efficient tool for screening opportunities, managing internal distribution of information on investments under review and archiving information on investments made (and not made) for portfolio management and comparative analysis.

Summary of the Invention The present invention overcomes the inadequacies of the prior art and meets the needs of the Institutional Investor community. In accordance with the present invention, a method of providing investors with remote access via an information portal to relevant financial and other information relating to financial products or deals presently or previously offered to qualified investors is disclosed. The method comprises the steps of receiving and storing investor profile information, storing deal information including deal summary information and at least one deal document for each financial product, receiving a user status classification and a document user group classification and/or individual document access classification for each investor invited to participate with respect to each financial product, and providing the investors remote access to the deal summary information based on their individual user status classifications and the deal document(s) based on their document user group classifications and/or individual document access classification.

According to another aspect of the present invention, deal summary information and deal documents pertaining to past deals are archived and maintained accessible to investors even after the financial product is no longer available for investment.

According to another aspect of the present invention, investors may optionally choose to be notified by e-mail when new documents relating to a syndication deal are posted to a deal page and such investors can view such new documents automatically by clicking on a link to such deal page.

According to another aspect of the present invention, an investor's access to new deal information is restricted once such investor has declined to participate in a deal, while such investor's access to previously accessible deal documents is still permitted, i.e., before the investor declined.

According to another aspect of the present invention, monthly conduit investor reports for ABCP conduits are, if the investor so chooses, automatically disseminated to such investor, e.g., by electronic mail.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is a block diagram of a system in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a block diagram of the server of Figure 1. Figure 3A-3I is a chart of tables stored in the database of the server of

Figure 2.

Figure 4A illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a Registration Form for a user to provide profile and other registration information.

Figure 4B illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an Edit Profile Form for a user to revise profile and other registration information.

Figure 5 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a Syndication Deals List Form for providing information to the user regarding syndication deals that the user has been invited for review.

Figure 6A-6B illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a Deal Summary Form for providing specific information about a particular syndicated deal.

Figure 7 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a User Classification Form for an administrator to assign a user a status and/or to a user group. Figure 8 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an ABCP Conduit List Form for providing information to the user regarding ABCP conduits that the user may access.

Figure 9A-9B illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an ABCP Summary Form for providing specific information to the user about a particular ABCP.

Detailed Description of the Invention

System Overview

In a preferred embodiment, the present invention is implemented as an information portal accessed through a site on the world wide web, e.g., at http://www.gecapitalmarkets.com. Figure 1 shows an embodiment of a system in accordance with the present invention, where a plurality of institutional investors 110 exchange information over the Internet 120 with a server 200 that generally retrieves information relating to presently or previously offered financial products or deals from a database (not shown) and selectively provides such information to the investors 110 based on a number of predetermined criteria. The information provided to the investors 110 and the predetermined criteria associated therewith is input over the Internet 120 to the server 200 by a plurality of administrators 130 at content entry desktop stations. Each investor 110 and each administrator 130 asynchronously communicates with the server 200 by accessing the htt ://www. gecapitalmarkets . com

Web site over the Internet 120 using a web-browser (e.g., Netscape® or Internet

Explorer®) on his personal computer via an Internet Service Provider ("ISP"; not shown) or by using well-known alternatives to a web-browser, such as Web-TV®, Palm® hand-held devices, cellular telephones, pagers and other personal digital assistants ("PDAs"). The operation of the Internet 120 and access thereto is well- known and is accordingly not described here in detail.

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the architecture of a preferred embodiment of the server 200. As Figure 2 illustrates, the server 200 is in actuality a combination of three servers: a web server 210; an application server 220; and a database server 230. Although not specifically shown, the server 200 may actually include multiple web servers 210 and application servers 220 clustered together in a unit. Servers 210, 220 and 230 each include certain standard hardware components, such as a central processing unit ("CPU") that is linked to both a random access memory ("RAM") and a read only memory ("ROM") by means of a shared data bus or by dedicated connections. The CPU performs all of the processing functions of the servers 210, 220 and 230 in accordance with an operating system ("OS"; not shown) that is stored in the ROM and which has multi-tasking capabilities. Because the system is intended for a large number of investors 110 and administrators 130, the RAM is preferably of sufficient size to prevent problems such as slow loading and system failure due to too many connections being attempted to be established at the same time. In a preferred embodiment of the system: the web server 210 comprises a cluster of two Sun Ultra 2 servers, each including 1 GB RAM, two 300 MHz CPUs and 9 GB disk space, wherein the requests from the investors 110 and administrators 130 are distributed between the servers by a CISCO LocalDirector 430 load balancer; the application server 220 comprises two Sun E450 servers, each including 4 GB RAM, two 400 MHz CPUs and 16 GB disk space, clustered in a load- balancing mode; and the database server 230 comprises a Sun E450 having 2 CPUs, 2 GB RAM and 9GB disk space and in communication with a database 260, which is stored in both the database server 230 and a fully-mirrored 1000 Redundant Array of Independent Disks ("RAID") having 36.4 GB prior to mirroring.

The web server 210 indirectly communicates with the investors 110 (or administrators 130) on hypertext transfer protocol ("HTTP") that is secured using a standard secure protocol (e.g., secure socket layer ("SSL") encryption software) through an input/output communications port. As previously mentioned, an investor 110, for example, gains access to the Internet 120 by means of his ISP. When the investor 110 requests access to the Web site by transmitting the domain name, the investor's request is routed through his ISP to a hosting ISP (not shown) associated with the web server 210. The hosting ISP in turn routes the investor's request to the web server's communications port via a communication line (e.g., a TI or T3 line). This type of line provides a high speed data connection between the hosting ISP and the web server 210.

The web server 210 communicates directly with the application server 220 over an internal communications line to an input/output communications port of the application server 220. The application server 220 is also connected via an internal communications line with the database server 230. In a preferred embodiment, the input/output communications ports for the web and application servers 210 and 220 are Cisco 2924 XL switches with redundancy.

Servers 210, 220 and 230 all include certain software components, such as software servers and software databases, to store information and perform the plurality of requests and transactions. The implementation of software servers to execute Internet-directed software in conjunction with a central server is well-known in the art, and the servers' configurations are accordingly not described in detail herein. The web server 210 includes a software component that performs the function of acting as a liaison between the investors 110 and the application server 220. For example, the web server 210 stores and serves static content to the investors and requests information from the investors 110 as directed by the application server 220. The application server 220 includes two distinct software components: the first component 240 is referred to as "Future Tense Java Applogics," and basically controls the dynamic content logic of the server 200, i.e., updating the database 260, caching HTML and database result sets, and processing searches and content entry; the second component 250 is referred to as "Other Java Classes," and includes authentication, logging, authorization and other business logic. As shown in Figure 2, the Future Tense Java Applogics 240 component runs on a Future Tense 280 application, and the Other Java Classes 250 component runs on a Netscape Application Server 270 application.

Figures 3A-3I comprises a chart listing records of tables/variables stored in the database 260 in the preferred embodiment of the invention. In field 310 of the chart, an identifier of the table stored in the database 260 is provided. The different variables for which corresponding information is stored are listed in the same record in field 320. All information entered by the investors 110 and administrators 130 during operation of the system is stored in the appropriate table(s)/variable(s) of Figures 3A-3I. n.

A brief description of each of the tables listed in field 310 and the information contained therein follows: table TCMS_CONTACT (field 330) stores securitization program contacts; table TCMS_CONTACT_TYP (field 332) stores information relating to types of contacts (e.g., dealer, rating, agency, etc.); table TCMS_COUNTRY (field 334) stores country names and codes; table TCMS_CURRENCY (field 336) stores information relating to the currencies of various countries; table TCMS_DEAL (field 338) stores information relating to syndication deals; table TCMS_DEAL_CATEGORY (field 340) stores information relating to syndication deal categories; table TCMS_DEAL_CATEGORY_REF (field 342) stores referencing information relating to the syndication deals; table TCMS_DEAL_SUB_CAT (field 344) stores information relating to syndication deal sub-categories; table TCMS_DEAL_TO_USGRP (field 346) stores relationships between deals and user groups; table TCMS_DOC_ENENT (field 348) stores information relating to document events (e.g., date of download, etc.); table TCMS_EMAIL_NOTIFY_TYP (field 350) stores e-mail notification types; table TCMS_ENENT_TYP (field 352) stores document event types (e.g., modify, upload, download, etc.); table TCMS_FACTORY (field 354) stores information relating to factories (e.g., business classes such as syndication, securitization, etc.) and units used with respect thereto (deal, conduit, etc.); table TCMS_FIELD_ACCESS (field 356) stores information for mapping field accessibility to roles; table TCMS_FILE (field 358) stores information relating to operating system files associated with syndication documents; table TCMS_GE_BUSINESS (field 360) stores information relating to various business units of GE; table TCMS_GLOBAL_PARAM (field 362) stores global parameters; table TCMS_PROGRAM (field 364) stores information relating to securitization programs; table TCMS_ROLE (field 366) stores administrative/non- administrative investor roles with respect to both syndication and securitization; table TCMS_ROLE_TO_SCREEN (field 368) stores information for mapping screen accessibility to roles; table TCMS_SCREEN (field 370) stores information relating to companies' screens; table TCMS_SEC_DOC (field 372) stores information relating to securitization documents; table TCMS_SEC_DOC_TYP (field 374) stores types of securitization documents; table TCMS_SIC_CODE (field 376) stores standard industry codes; table TCMS_STATE (field 378) stores the states of the United States; table TCMS_SYN_DOC (field 379) stores information relating to syndication documents; table TCMS_SYND_DOC_USR_ACCESS (field 380) stores information relating to access by investors to various syndication documents; table TCMS_SYND_DOC_TO_USRGRP (field 381) stores information relating to access by user groups to various syndication documents; table TCMS_TRANCHE_TYP (field 382) stores types of syndication tranches; table TCMS TRANCHE (field 383) stores information relating to the syndication deal tranches; table TCMS_URL (field 384) stores information relating to URLs; table

TCMS_USER_DOC_EMAIL_STATUS (field 385) stores information relating to syndication documents received by investors; table

TCMS_USER_EMAIL_PREFS_PROGRAM (field 386) stores information relating to e-mails about securitization programs that an investor wishes to receive; table TCMS_USER_GROUP (field 387) stores information relating to user groups; table TCMS_USER_STATUS (field 388) stores the different statuses that can be assigned to investors (e.g., active, disabled, etc.); table TCMS_USER_TO_PROG_ROLE (field 389) stores information relating to the securitization program roles granted to administrators; table TCMS_USR_DEAL_DET (field 390) stores information mapping investors to various syndication deals; table

TCMS_USR_EMAIL_PREFSJDEAL (field 392) stores information relating to e- ails about syndication deals that an investor wishes to receive; table TCMS_USER_TO_USRGRP (field 394) stores information mapping users to user groups; and table TCMS_USER (field 396) stores information relating to application users (i.e., not database users).

A method for providing an investor access to investment product information using the above system in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail.

As used herein, the terms "investor" and "user" shall be understood to interchangeably refer to the investor 110 described above.

User Registration

\

To begin the registration process, a user must first access the Web site home page from which the information is made available (here, http://www.gecapitalmarkets.com). Due to the fact that the investment products described on the Web site involves the offer and/or sale of securities and the parties to the transactions are furnishing confidential information, password protection is used to limit access to certain information to registered users. However, prior to receiving a password, the user must first provide his profile and other registration information.

An exemplary embodiment of a form for the user to provide such information (i.e., a "Registration Form") is illustrated in Figure 4A. The Registration

Form generally comprises three sections. Section 410 contains securities law information and a QIB certification from the investor. Section 420 includes fields for the user to provide contact information, such as his name, e-mail address, company name and mailing address. Finally, Section 430 permits the user to elect to be notified of new or modified documents pertaining to syndication deals. To transmit this information to the server 200, the user clicks on the "SUBMIT" button 440. To reset the information prior to transmission, the user can click on the "RESET" button 450.

After a user registers for the Web site and the user's status is set as "active" by the administrator, he may choose to change his profile information from time to time. An exemplary embodiment of a form for the user to change his profile information (i.e., an "Edit Profile Form") is illustrated in Figure 4B. The Edit Profile Form generally comprises three sections. Section 460 includes fields for the user to change his contact information, such as his name, address, e-mail address, etc. Section 465 includes buttons for the user to "x" if he would like to be notified via e- mail regarding various investor reports related to corresponding ABCP conduits. Finally, section 470 permits the user to elect to be notified of new or modified documents pertaining to syndication deals. To transmit this information to the server 200, the user clicks on the "EDIT PROFILE" button 475. To reset the information prior to transmission, the user can click on the "RESET" button 480. As will be discussed in more detail below, a registered user is provided with a number of opportunities to revise/update this information while engaged in a deal information review session.

As mentioned above, the registration process (illustrated in Figure 4A) also requires the user to indicate in a QIB certificate that he meets the requirements of a QIB under SEC regulations. Upon receipt of the requested information and validation of the user as a QIB, an administrator sets the user status as "active" and a password is generated for the user and e-mailed to the user's provided e-mail address. The first time the investor logs onto the Web site with his new password he will be required to agree to the specified terms and conditions for access to information. Acceptance of the terms and conditions to the Web site must be made by the user before he will be given access to secured portions of the Web site. In addition, if the user would like to access the syndicated deal side of the Web site, the user is required to accept a master confidentiality agreement which is made available through a link (not shown) from the Registration Form. Lastly, prior to being given access to any particular syndicated deal, the investor will be required to accept an addendum to the master confidentiality agreement that incorporates its terms and conditions to the specific deal.

When a properly registered user begins a new session, an authentication page is transmitted to the user the first time the user requests access to a password-protected page on the site. The user must then enter his user name and provided password on the authentication page, which is verified by the system before access is granted to the requested page. A user may be temporarily designated inactive if, for example, he leaves his current employer, although he may thereafter be re-activated through his new employer. In the preferred embodiment, the system also maintains a list of previously rejected users to prevent future access to the site by those users.

Access to Syndication Deals and Private Placement Information

Once the user has been accepted and registered, administrators 130 can then invite the user to review certain deal information, such as deal summary information and deal documents. The process by which administrators 130 determine which deals and which documents relating to those deals will be made available to the user will be discussed in detail below with respect to Figure 7. For purposes of this invention, private debt placements or private equity placements are treated in the same manner as loan syndications. Thus, although the foregoing description uses syndicated corporate loans as an exemplary embodiment, the principles and methods set forth herein apply equally to private debt placements, private equity placements and other financial products.

An exemplary embodiment of a form for providing a listing of syndication deals that the user has been invited to review (i.e., a "Syndication Deals List Form") is illustrated in Figure 5. The Syndication Deals List Form generally comprises three sections. Section 510 includes a drop down menu from which several categories of syndication deals may be selected for display, i.e., "Active deals", "Closed deals", "Declined deals" and "All deals". "Active deals" are deals for which the relevant syndication closing date has not passed and which has not previously been declined by the investor. "Closed deals" are deals for which the relevant syndication closing date has passed, but the investor has not previously declined. Such deals may still be available for investment in the secondary or closed primary syndication phase. "Declined deals" are those deals that were made available to the user but were previously declined by the user, regardless of whether the syndication closing date has passed. "All deals" include "Active deals", "Closed deals" and "Declined deals".

In a particularly advantageous aspect of the present invention, the administrator 130 associated with the deal maintains in the database an identification of deal(s) declined by the user and dates on which the deals were declined. In this manner, the user is provided with access to only those deal documents and revisions thereof that existed at the time a specific deal was declined. Thus, a user who has declined to participate in a given deal is not provided access to revisions made or new documents added to the deal after he has declined. However, the declined user is permitted continued access to those documents that were accessible prior to declining. Archived access to declined deal documents is particularly helpful to permit the user to compare information on previously declined deals with those currently offered and available. This feature aids in the user's decision-making process for "Active deals" in which primary syndication is still open.

The user's selection of deal type in the pull-down menu of section 510 displays deals in that category in section 520, which includes columns to show the next milestone, name, deal size, deal purpose and general industry of each of the deals. Each of the deal names are hyper-linked to a Deal Summary Form corresponding to the deal, which will be discussed in more detail below with respect to Figure 6A-6B.

Section 530 comprises hyper-links to forms for editing the user's profile, changing his password and logging out. Also included is an expandable list of deals in their respective categories which provides an alternate form of navigation to the Deal Summary Forms. However, prior to the user's first time viewing any of the specific information for a deal, the user is presented with a confidentiality agreement specific to the deal, which is an addendum to the master confidentiality agreement previously discussed. Once the user has indicated acceptance of the agreement, the user may proceed directly to the deal information upon subsequent sessions. An exemplary embodiment of a Deal Summary Form is illustrated in Figures 6A-6B. Sections of this form provides the important details of a specific deal, including: the deal name in section 610; a summary of the deal, including a description of the industry, company, market position and/or financing purpose in section 620; total facility amount and relevant launch/meeting/commitment/closing dates in section 630; basic financial information for the company seeking the financing, such as summary credit statistics, in section 640; the tranches included in the deal as well as an indication of their types, terms, and a brief description of each, in section 650; a listing of documents relevant to the offer that are available for download, such as an information memorandum and a financial projections model, in section 660; a listing of analytical tools that are available for download, such as a sample cash flow model, in section 670; a listing of legal documents that are available for download, such as a draft credit agreement and exhibits and final execution documents, in section 680; and other information available for download, such as an allocation memo and a hyperlink to the company's Web site, in section 690. For documents available for download, the form further indicates the dates of the documents and provides for downloading in different formats. The specific documents accessible through this page will depend on the deal.

A particularly useful aspect of the Deal Summary Form is an option presented to the user to receive e-mail notification of changes to the deal documents (not shown). Due to the fact that it is not uncommon for deal documents to be revised several times before a deal is closed, or for additional deal documents to be made available, providing the user with convenient access and notification of document revisions and additions is particularly advantageous. Thus, a link is provided to permit users to edit their user profile either to activate or deactivate e-mail notification of document revisions. An additional feature of the deal detail screen is the ability to permit the user to send an e-mail to the designated deal contact for the specific deal (also not shown). User Classification

An administrator 130 responsible for a specific deal determines which users will be invited to participate in the deal. In one embodiment, this may be done simply by contacting users by telephone to determine if they have an interest in a specific deal. In alternate embodiments, users may provide specific information in a profile concerning the types of deals they are interested in, which profile information can then be matched to specific deals so as to automatically invite certain users to specific deals. Similarly, information on the specific deals users previously invested in may be used to match them to new deals. In other words, the system may be configured to "learn" a user's preferences based on past experience and use this learned data to determine which new deals to invite the investor to participate in.

As previously mentioned, before a user is provided access to information for the specific deal, he must be added to the list of users for that deal. This provides an additional level of access control because the system is configured so that only those users invited to participate in a given deal are provided with access to information pertaining to the deal.

Figure 7 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a form used by an administrator 130 to add the user to a specific deal (i.e., a "User Classification Form"). This form appears to the administrator 130 after the user has been chosen to be added to a specific deal. Section 710 of this form includes a "Status" portion for the administrator 130 to classify the status of the user for the deal. The status categories include: "Active," "Committed," and "Declined." The user status for a particular deal dictates the category of the deal for purposes of his Syndicated Deals List Form of Figure 5. "Active" status means that the deal will be identified as an "Active deal" before the syndication closing date and a "Closed deal" after the syndication closing date, provided the user has not declined the deal. "Committed" status means that that the user has agreed to participate in the deal and the deal will also be identified as an "Active deal" before the syndication closing date and a "Closed deal" after the syndication closing date. "Declined" status means that user has rejected the deal, and the deal is identified as a "Declined deal" both before and after the syndication closing date.

Adding a user to a deal only provides the user with access to the deal summary information, but not any of the deal documents described above in connection with Figures 6A-6B. The user must be separately authorized access to deal documents by the administrator 130. This provides an advantage, because it permits the administrator 130 to first determine if there is any serious interest by a specific investor before providing access to confidential and potentially sensitive deal documents. Furthermore, it provides substantial flexibility to the administrator 130 with regard to controlling access to the various documents associated with a syndication deal.

Accordingly, in addition to providing access to deal summary information on an individual user basis, section 720 of the User Classification Form allows the administrator 130 to permit access to deal documents on a user group basis. Each user group may be allowed access to different sets of deal documents as determined by the administrator 130, and all assigned members of the user group automatically receive viewing permission or access to the deal documents associated with that group. For example, referring to section 720, there are three document user groups designated for user-investors: "Prospective Investor," including users that are still considering investing in a specific deal; "Committed Investor," including users that have already agreed to invest in a specific deal; and "Closed/Funded Investor," including users once the syndication closing date has passed. There are also user groups defined for non-investors (e.g., administrators), such as members of the "Extended deal team" and "Internal deal team." Users may also be granted access to documents on an individual document basis. The administrator 130 may make documents available to users by designating them as available to one or more groups and/or one or more investors. Providing access on a document-by-document basis allows for significant flexibility in distribution of deal documents. However, once a user's status becomes "Declined," he is not permitted access to any new documents pertaining to the deal, but is permitted continued access to those documents for which permission was previously granted prior to declining.

The investor classification and document permission aspects of the present invention personalize each investor's display of syndicated deal information. Each user can be permitted access to a different set of deals, and to different sets of documents for the deals. In this manner, the invention provides substantial flexibility to administrators 130 in disseminating and controlling access to deal information by allowing them to readily keep track of the specific documents made available to each

user. Notification

If the user has elected to be notified by e-mail about new or modified syndicated deal documents, he will receive an e-mail in the event that he is granted individual permission to view a document, he is added as a member of a document user group that contains documents or a new document has been added to a document user group of which he is a member. The e-mail will notify the user that a document has been made available for review by the user and will further contain a link to the Web site home page (http://www.gecapitalmarkets.comJ.

Administrator Classification Administrators 130 are also classified into groups that control the permissions they receive to perform certain activities. For example, a "super user" has full permission to add/delete users and add or change the documents for any deal. A "deal owner" can perform these same functions but only for the specific deal(s) he owns. A "sales desk" administrator can add or delete investors from a deal and change their status and user group memberships. A "syndication super viewer" has the ability to view all of the deal summary information and documents that are available to investor-users.

A benefit of this classification system is that it permits a centralized building of knowledge with regard to all deals. In this regard, the system and method of the present invention also provides for archiving of deal documents and summary information. An active user maintains access to all the information and documents that were previously made available to him. Thus, when he is invited to a new deal, he can readily obtain information on past deals without having to locate and retrieve paper records. Asset-Backed Commercial Paper ("ABCP") Conduits

An exemplary embodiment of a form for providing a listing of asset- backed commercial paper conduits (i.e., "ABCP Conduit List Form") is illustrated in Figure 8. Password protection is also implemented to access this page as well as linked information providing more detail concerning each conduit. However, once a user has logged on to the general Web site by inputting his user name and password, it is not necessary to re-enter this information when navigating between ABCP screens and syndication deals.

Section 810 of the ABCP Conduit List Form includes general information regarding asset-backed commercial paper and summary information concerning the specific programs or conduits available. Summary information for the various conduits available includes: the name of the conduits; the dates the conduits were established; the ratings assigned to the conduits by ratings agencies (e.g., Standard & Poors and Moody's); the asset types that secure the financing for the conduit; the date as of which the information is current; and the outstanding commitments and commercial paper, both in dollars. Also included are hyper-links to the ABCP Summary Forms where each of the conduits is described in detail (discussed below with respect to Figure 9A-9B). Section 820 provides the user with edit profile, change password and log-out options as discussed above. Hyper-links are also provided to the ABCP Summary Forms for each of the specific conduits.

An "ABCP Summary Form" for a representative conduit (i.e., ABCP #1) is illustrated in Figure 9A-9B. This form generally includes: the name of the conduit in section 910; general program information regarding the conduit, including a brief description, in section 920; edit profile, change password, log-out, e-mail notification options and hyper-links to the ABCP Summary Forms for each of the specific conduits in section 930; the date as of which the information is current, the program limit, outstanding commercial paper, and outstanding commitments in section 940; monthly report information available for download in section 950; and miscellaneous information available for download, such as a program overview, a private placement memorandum and a credit and investment policy, in section 960.

More particularly with respect to the monthly reports of section 950, reports for both the current month and past months may be downloaded. As shown, a drop down menu permits the user to select the specific report he wants to download. The monthly reports provide summary program information, including updated data regarding the total number of sellers/borrowers, total fundings outstanding, total commercial paper outstanding and total program letter of credit. The conduits are divided into pools of sellers/borrowers, and the reports further include information concerning the various sellers/borrowers, including industry, S&P and Moody's ratings, maximum facility limit, fundings outstanding, asset type and payment terms, and other information. Centralized access to archived monthly reports permits investors to readily track the performance of the conduit.

Hyper-links to the ratings agencies' Web sites may also be provided on the ABCP Summary Form (not shown). In addition, a hyper-link to provide the user with access to broker/dealer information so that users can initiate transactions may also be provided (not shown). Additional buttons can be included to provide the user with access to contact information at the rating agencies and broker/dealers and answers to frequently asked questions (FAQ). As with the syndication deal documents, the monthly conduit investor reports and other documents relating to the ABCP conduits may be made available for download in different formats, such as pdf format or a word processing format (e.g., Microsoft Word) Additional aspects that may optionally be included in systems and methods of the present invention are discussed below.

Book-Building

The system and method of the present invention may further include the capability to keep track of the total book for all of its deals (known as "book- building"). This book-building function includes an accounting of how much money has already been committed for each deal and by whom, and the amount of additional commitments required before the deal can be closed. This information is generated into a report, which shows the status of sales efforts on a deal-by-deal basis. In addition, reports may be generated on an investor-by-investor basis to review the history of an investor's past investments. Market Reading

The system and method of the present invention may further include the capability to receive and process feedback and market soundings regarding transactions over the Internet 120 from users 110. This eliminates the need for administrators 130 to have to make numerous phone calls to gather data on the likely performance of a transaction in the market. It will also preferably provide users 110 with an opportunity to suggest changes to the transaction structure that they believe will make the deal more marketable. From a business standpoint, the functionality provides a significant competitive advantage through greater data accuracy and speed in generating market intelligence. On-line Commitments & Auctions

The system and method of the present invention may further include the capability to receive on-line bids from users 1 10 for transactions. Such bids can be submitted without any changes to the term sheet, or can be submitted dependant upon acceptance by administrators 130 of user-added conditions. This bidding system provides a significant competitive advantage through increased speed in execution of transactions. This functionality also preferably allows the system to hold auctions where multiple users 110 can bid on transactions. The users 110 can be advised in real-time of the best current bids on the deal, thereby allowing them to increase their bids. Report Generation

The system and method of the present invention may further include the capability for administrators 130 to generate different types of reports relating to investor activity. Reports may be generated in any number of ways using the database of current and archived deal information. Reports may be generated on an individual deal basis, an individual investor basis, or a QIB basis, i.e., using the affiliation of individual investor users. One example is a report that permits an administrator 130 to select a particular deal document or group of deal documents relating to a financial product and receive a report of all of the investors who have accessed the document(s) within a specified time period. This capability provides one means for the administrator 130 to monitor investor interest in the financial product. Another type of report is an investor status report, which allows an administrator 130 to select an investor and receive a report indicating the investor's status (i.e., active, committed or declined) for each deal in which the investor has been invited to participate. The administrator 130 can utilize this information for marketing purposes, e.g., to direct his efforts towards investors having a history of participating in deals offered to them. Reports based on QIBs or individual investor affiliation are useful to track the success of sales efforts.

Although the present invention has been described in detail in connection with a preferred embodiment, it should be understood that various modifications may be made to the specified features, functionality and steps of the invention by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims

We claim: 1. A method for providing an investor remote access to deal information pertaining to a financial product, comprising the steps of: receiving and storing profile information of said investor; storing said deal information comprising deal summary information and at least one deal document; receiving an individual status classification of said investor with respect to said financial product; receiving a user group classification of said investor with respect to said financial product; providing said investor remote access to said deal summary information based on said individual status classification; and providing said investor remote access to said deal document based on said user group classification.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said financial product comprises private debt or equity placement.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said financial product comprises a syndicated loan.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the steps of: determining whether said investor has accepted a confidentiality agreement; and providing said deal information to said investor if said investor has accepted said confidentiality agreement.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said individual status classification comprises one of the group of: active, committed and declined.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein remote access is provided to said deal summary information if said individual status classification comprises active or committed.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising the step of storing an updated version of said deal summary information.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising the step of providing remote access to said updated version of said deal summary information if said investor status classification is active or committed.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of: receiving a new investor status classification based on a change in status of said investor; and changing said investor status classification to said new investor status classification.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said individual status classification is received from an administrator.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of categorizing said deal information based on said individual status classification and based on a deal syndication status, wherein a link to said deal summary is displayed to said investor if said deal information category is selected by said investor.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said category is an active deal if said individual status classification is active or committed and said deal syndication status is open.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said category is a closed deal if said individual status classification is active or committed and said deal syndication status is closed.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein said category is a declined deal if said individual status classification is declined and said deal syndication status is open or closed.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said user group classification comprises one of the group of: active, committed, and closed/funded.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the user group classification is received from an administrator.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of: receiving from said administrator information indicating the group classifications provided with access to said deal document; and providing said investor remote access to said deal document if said investor's user group classification comprises one of the group classifications provided with access to said deal document.

18. The method of claim 7, further comprising the steps of: receiving a notification preference from said investor indicating that said investor has selected to be notified of said updated version; notifying said investor of said updated version if said investor status classification comprises active or committed.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of notifying said investor of an availability of a new document relating to said financial product.

20. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of notifying said investor if said deal document has been previously accessed by said investor.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein said financial product comprises a currently offered product.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein said financial product comprises a previously offered product.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein said remote access is provided to said investor over the Internet.

24. A method for providing an investor remote access to deal information pertaining to syndication deals, comprising the steps of: receiving and storing profile information of said investor; storing deal information for a plurality of syndication deals, wherein said syndication deals include currently and previously offered syndication deals and said deal information comprises deal summary information, receiving an individual status classification of said investor for each syndication deal that said investor has been selected for participation; and providing said investor remote access to deal information for each syndication deal based on said individual status classification wherein said investor can obtain historical deal information for a previously offered syndication deal if said investor had previously been selected to participate in said previously offered deal when said deal was offered for investment.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said individual status classification comprises one of the group of: active, committed and declined.

26. The method of claim 25, wherem remote access is provided to deal information for each syndication deal if said individual status classification comprises active or committed.

27. The method of claim 24, further comprising the step of displaying to said investor a categorized list of syndication deals that said investor has been selected for participation based on said individual status classification and a deal syndication status of each syndication deal.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein said categorized list of syndication deals comprises active syndication deals and an active syndication deal on said categorized list is displayed in response to an individual status classification of active or committed and a deal syndication status of active.

29. The method of claim 27, wherein said categorized list of syndication deals comprises closed syndication deals and a closed syndication deal on said categorized list is displayed in response to an individual status classification of prospective or committed and a deal syndication status of closed.

30. The method of claim 27, wherein said categorized list of syndication deals comprises declined syndication deals and a declined syndication deal on said categorized list is displayed in response to an individual status classification of declined and a deal syndication status of open or closed.

31. A method for providing an investor remote access to a deal document pertaining to a syndication deal, comprising the steps of: receiving and storing profile information of said investor; storing a plurality of deal documents pertaining to said syndication deal; receiving an assignment of at least one user group classification of said investor with respect to said syndication deal; receiving an assignment of at least one user group classification for each of said plurality of deal documents; and providing said investor remote access to a requested deal document if at least one of the user group classifications assigned to said investor corresponds with one of the received user group classifications assigned to said requested deal document; wherein said investor is permitted continued access to said requested deal document after said syndication deal is no longer available for investment.

32. A method for providing an investor remote access to a deal document pertaining to a syndication deal, comprising the steps of: receiving and storing profile information of said investor; storing a plurality of deal documents pertaining to said syndication deal; receiving an assignment of at least one user group classification of said investor with respect to said syndication deal; receiving an assignment of at least one user group classification for each of said plurality of deal documents; and providing said investor remote access to a requested deal document if at least one of the user group classifications assigned to said investor corresponds with one of the received user group classifications assigned to said requested deal document; wherein said investor is permitted continued access to said requested deal document after said investor has declined to participate in said syndication deal.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising the step of disabling said investor from access to deal documents assigned to the received user group classification after said investor has declined to participate in said syndication deal:

34. A system for providing an investor remote access to information pertaining to a financial product, comprising: a web server coupled to the Internet, said web server for receiving information from and transmitting information to said investor and an administrator; an application server coupled to said web server; a database server coupled to said application server; and a storage device coupled to the database server, said storage device for storing i) profile information of said investor, and ii) deal information comprising deal summary information and at least one deal document; wherein said system is configured to: receive from said administrator an individual status classification of said investor with respect to said financial product; receive from said administrator a user group classification of said investor with respect to said financial product; provide said investor remote access to said deal summary information based on said individual status classification; and provide said investor remote access to said deal document based on said user group classification.

35. A system for providing an investor remote access to information pertaining to syndication deals, comprising: a web server coupled to the Internet, said web server for receiving information from and transmitting information to said investor and an administrator; an application server coupled to said web server; a database server coupled to said application server; and a storage device coupled to the database server, said storage device for storing i) profile information of said investor, and ii) deal information for a plurality of syndication deals comprising currently offered syndication deals and previously offered syndication deals; wherein said system is configured to: receive from said administrator an individual status classification of said investor for each syndication deal that said investor has been selected for participation; and provide said investor remote access to deal information for each syndication deal based on said individual status classification; and wherein said investor can obtain historical deal information for a previously offered syndication deal if said investor had previously been selected to participate in said previously offered deal when said deal was offered for investment.

36. A system for providing an investor remote access to a deal document pertaining to a syndication deal, comprising: a web server coupled to the Internet, said web server for receiving information from and transmitting information to said investor and an administrator; an application server coupled to said web server; a database server coupled to said application server; and a storage device coupled to the database server, said storage device for storing i) profile information of said investor, and ii) a plurality of deal documents pertaining to said syndication deal; wherein said system is configured to: receive an assignment of a user group classification of said investor with respect to said syndication deal; provide said investor remote access to each of said plurality of deal documents based on said user group classification; wherein said investor is permitted continued access to said requested deal document after said syndication deal is no longer available for investment.

37. A system for providing an investor remote access to a deal document pertaining to a syndication deal, comprising: a web server coupled to the Internet, said web server for receiving information from and transmitting information to said investor and an administrator; an application server coupled to said web server; a database server coupled to said application server; and a storage device coupled to the database server, said storage device for storing i) profile information of said investor, and ii) a plurality of deal documents pertaining to said syndication deal; wherein said system is configured to: receive an assignment of a user group classification of said investor with respect to said syndication deal; provide said investor remote access to each of said plurality of deal documents based on said user group classification; wherein said investor is permitted continued access to said requested deal document after said investor has declined to participate in said syndication deal.

38. The method of claim 31, wherein said user group classification comprises one of the group of: active, committed, and closed/funded.

39. A method for providing an investor remote access to summary and periodic information pertaining to a financial product, comprising the steps of: receiving and storing profile information of said investor, said profile information comprising an indication of said investor's election to automatically receive periodic investor reports concerning said financial product; storing summary information for said product; storing investor reports reflecting the past performance of said financial product; authorizing said investor access to said summary information and said periodic investor reports in response to review of said profile information; electronically transmitting a new periodic investor report to said investor, provided an indication of said investor's election to automatically receive periodic investor reports concerning said financial product has been previously received; wherein said new periodic investor report is transmitted via electronic mail.

40. The method of claim 39 wherein said financial product comprises asset- backed commercial paper.