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TRIAD FINANCIAL GOES LIVE ON CREDITONLINE NETWORK

-- Leading eCommerce Marketplace Helps Prominent Automotive Finance Company Expedite Loan Applications and Improve Service --

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA — May 20, 2002 — Triad Financial Corporation, one of the nation's leading non-prime auto finance companies, today announced that it has "gone live" on Credit Online's CreditOnline™ Network, an e-commerce service providing high-speed electronic links that connect lenders with auto dealers, credit bureaus and other lenders. Credit Online, Inc. is a member of The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF) family of companies.

Similar to an ATM network, the CreditOnline Network enables businesses of all sizes, such as automotive dealerships, to instantly evaluate the credit worthiness of their prospective customers and electronically route credit applications via the Internet to participating lenders and finance companies. The CreditOnline Network provides a single interface into a lender's credit processing system and allows it to accept credit applications from many sources electronically, including the lender's Web site, participating dealers' Web sites and other consumer Web sites. The CreditOnline Network also has the capability of exchanging credit applications and decisions among lenders.

Triad Financial focuses on nonprime lending for new and late-model used automobile purchases. The company is headquartered in Huntington Beach, Calif., and has over 1,400 employees. Triad presently purchases consumer contracts in 32 states from more than 7,500 automotive dealers.

By going live on the Network, Triad can now receive auto loan applications from its automotive dealers online, improving service to these dealers by simplifying the application process. Triad will also return decisions to dealers online, eliminating the need for manual faxing and shortening the overall turnaround time from application to approval.

"The electronic connectivity of the CreditOnline Network will help our CreditConnection® dealers better manage their application flow," said Jack Fernandez, Triad's chief operating officer. "Our job, as a lender, is to deliver products and services that satisfy dealer demands. Joining CreditConnection is one way of telling dealers we are listening."

"We're very pleased that Triad Financial can now connect to their dealers through the CreditOnline Network," said Howard L. Tischler, Credit Online's president and chief executive officer. "Adding Triad to our extensive list of participating lenders reinforces our Network's position as one of the largest business-to-business marketplaces today."

The CreditOnline Network provides many benefits to participating lenders. In addition to helping lenders provide faster credit decisions and improved service due to reduced data entry and the elimination of faxing documents back and forth, it can also yield increased booking ratios and stronger relationships with the lender's dealer customers.

In addition to lender benefits, the CreditOnline Network also provides many benefits to dealers through its CreditConnection service, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. One dealer benefit includes the elimination of profit leak caused by "spotting" vehicles to customers and the resulting recontracting. The service also gives dealers the ability to increase financing penetration, improve per-vehicle profit, boost customer satisfaction, and increase finance and insurance department productivity.

The CreditOnline Network is one of the largest business-to-business marketplaces in terms of number of lender participants and volume of transactions. Currently, the Network consists of more than 30 prime and nonprime banks and finance companies located throughout the United States and Canada.

About Credit Online, Inc.
Credit Online is the e-commerce subsidiary of First American CMSI. The company credit-enables business-to-business transactions through its Internet gateway and its patented CreditConnection technology. Credit Online's innovative technology instantly and electronically connects businesses that are credit originators (such as automotive dealers) to credit bureaus and multiple funding sources or "electronic" lenders throughout the United States and Canada via the Internet. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, expediting the credit application approval process from days to minutes. The service also provides a host of communication and analysis tools that cater to a finance and insurance manager's need to increase productivity. Headquartered in Annapolis Junction, Md., First American CMSI has been the premier end-to-end credit automation solutions provider, including Internet-based online lending and leasing technology, since the company's inception in 1987. First American CMSI also licenses credit-decisioning systems for consumer and business credit that have been the choice of North America's largest lending institutions. For more information, visit www.cmsinc.com.

About Triad Financial
Triad Financial is one of the leading nonprime auto finance companies in the nation, focusing on new and late model used automobile purchases through a national network of 7,500 dealers in 32 states. Unique in its ability to serve customers who may not qualify for loans based on conventional criteria, Triad offers automobile dealers the opportunity to close sales for a broad range of loan candidates. With a reputation for having strong customer relationships, fast funding, longevity, and an experienced management team, Triad delivers timely and consistent service to its customers. Triad is headquartered in Southern California and maintains three regional centers in Huntington Beach, California, Ft. Worth, Texas and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Triad Financial is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Credit. Information about Triad Financial and a newsroom of press releases can be found at www.triadfinancial.com.

CONTACT:
Triad Financial Corp., Marketing Department
Jon Samsel, 714-373-8300, ext. 1-24400
Vice-President of Marketing


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