MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 21, 2025--
Total Expert, the FinServ leader in customer engagement software, today announced the launch of its two-way integration with the Empower® loan origination system (LOS) from Dark Matter Technologies. This integration allows lenders to effectively use real-time loan information from both solutions to serve and connect with their customers.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250421416754/en/
The integration automatically transfers new leads, contact details, updates, and more from Total Expert into the Empower LOS, eliminating duplicate data entry and ensuring loan officers always work with the latest customer insights. At the same time, key customer information and data from the Empower LOS—such as loan status milestones, approval dates, and closing dates—instantaneously update customer contact records in Total Expert. The cohesive arrangement helps lenders modernize customer engagement, using data to educate, engage, and advise customers throughout the entire loan lifecycle.
“Lenders that connect Total Expert with the Empower LOS can deliver personalized customer journeys at scale like never before,” said Joe Welu, Founder and CEO of Total Expert. “This integration provides loan officers with high-quality data faster so they can deliver the right message to the right customers at the right time.”
The strategic API integration provides an out-of-the-box CRM and LOS solution that can quickly impact users' day-to-day operations. This provides lenders, banks, and credit unions with real-time access to valuable data, creative marketing, and automated solutions to customize customer engagements and effectively show up in the moments that matter.
“Connecting our Empower LOS with Total Expert’s platform is a game-changer for lenders aiming to streamline operations and elevate their customer experience,” said Sean Dugan, CEO of Dark Matter Technologies. “This two-way integration will help lenders move faster with exceptional insights to stay ahead of consumer expectations. We prioritized Total Expert’s leading platform because we believe this will be a powerful partnership that provides for our clients.”
Here is how the collaborative integration can help lenders:
For more information on Total Expert, visit TotalExpert.com. To learn more about Dark Matter Technologies and its Empower LOS Platform, visit DMatter.com/Empower-LOS. Current customers of Total Expert and Dark Matter can immediately activate the integration. Lenders interested in learning more about the partnership can contact either organization.
About Total Expert
Total Expert is the purpose-built customer engagement platform trusted by more than 200 financial enterprises. Total Expert unifies data, marketing, sales, and compliance solutions to deliver the perfect customer journey across every financial milestone—in any market. Total Expert turns customer insights into actions that increase loyalty and drive growth for modern banks, lenders, credit unions, and insurance companies. Total Expert is now available for purchase on the AWS Marketplace and Salesforce AppExchange.
About Dark Matter Technologies
Operating with the nimble nature of a startup and the disciplined maturity of one of the industry’s leading providers, Dark Matter Technologies delivers powerful technology with unparalleled automation and relentless innovation to leading mortgage lenders, servicers and companies nationwide. For more information, visit www.dmatter.com.
The new integration allows lenders to effectively use real-time loan information from both solutions to serve and connect with their customers.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — After months of tense negotiations, the U.S. and Ukraine signed a deal that is expected to give Washington access to the country’s critical minerals and other natural resources, an agreement Kyiv hopes will secure long-term support for its defense against Russia.
According to Ukrainian officials, the version of the deal signed Wednesday is far more beneficial to Ukraine than previous versions, which they said reduced Kyiv to a junior partner and gave Washington unprecedented rights to the country's resources.
The agreement — which the Ukrainian parliament must ratify — would establish a reconstruction fund for Ukraine that Ukrainian officials hope will be a vehicle to ensure future American military assistance. A previous agreement was nearly signed before being derailed in a tense Oval Office meeting involving U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“We have formed a version of the agreement that provides mutually beneficial conditions for both countries. This is an agreement in which the United States notes its commitment to promoting long-term peace in Ukraine and recognizes the contribution that Ukraine has made to global security by giving up its nuclear arsenal,” Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who signed the deal for Ukraine, said in a post on Facebook.
The signing comes during what U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said would be a “very critical” week for U.S.-led efforts to end the war that appear to have stalled. Ukraine sees the deal as a way to ensure that its biggest and most consequential ally stays engaged and doesn’t freeze military support, which has been key in its 3-year-old fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
“This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who signed for the U.S., said in a statement.
Here is a look at the deal.
The deal covers minerals, including rare earth elements, but also other valuable resources, including oil and natural gas, according to the text released by Ukraine's government.
It does not include resources that are already a source of revenue for the Ukrainian state. In other words, any profits under the deal are dependent on the success of new investments. Ukrainian officials have also noted that it does not refer to any debt obligations for Kyiv, meaning profits from the fund will likely not go toward the paying the U.S. back for its previous support.
Officials have also emphasized that the agreement ensures full ownership of the resources remains with Ukraine, and the state will determine what can be extracted and where.
The text of the deal lists 55 minerals but says more can be agreed to.
Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in Ukraine's rare earth elements, and some of them are included in the list, as are other critical minerals, such as titanium, lithium and uranium.
They are a group of 17 elements that are essential to many kinds of consumer technology, including cellphones, hard drives and electric and hybrid vehicles.
China is the world’s largest producer of rare earth elements, and both the U.S and Europe have sought to reduce their dependence on Beijing, Trump’s chief geopolitical adversary.
They include elements such as lanthanum, cerium and scandium, which are listed in the deal.
The agreement establishes a reconstruction investment fund, and both the U.S. and Ukraine will have an equal say in its management, according to Svyrydenko.
The fund will be supported by the U.S. government through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation agency, which Ukraine hopes will attract investment and technology from American and European countries.
Ukraine is expected to contribute 50% of all future profits from government-owned natural resources into the fund. The United States will also contribute in the form of direct funds and equipment, including badly needed air defense systems and other military aid.
Contributions to the fund will be reinvested in projects related to mining, oil and gas as well as infrastructure.
No profits will not be taken from the fund for the first 10 years, Svyrydenko said.
Trump administration officials initially pushed for a deal in which Washington would receive $500 billion in profits from exploited minerals as compensation for its wartime support.
But Zelenskyy rejected the offer, saying he would not sign off on an agreement “that will be paid off by 10 generations of Ukrainians.”
Ukraine’s rare earth elements are largely untapped because of state policies regulating the industry, a lack of good information about deposits, and the war.
The industry’s potential is unclear since geological data is thin because mineral reserves are scattered across Ukraine, and existing studies are considered largely inadequate, according to businessmen and analysts.
In general, however, the outlook for Ukrainian natural resources is promising. The country's reserves of titanium, a key component for the aerospace, medical and automotive industries, are believed to be among Europe’s largest. Ukraine also holds some of Europe’s largest known reserves of lithium, which is required to produce batteries, ceramics and glass.
In 2021, the Ukrainian mineral industry accounted for 6.1% of the country’s gross domestic product and 30% of exports.
An estimated 40% of Ukraine's metallic mineral resources are inaccessible because of Russian occupation, according to data from We Build Ukraine, a Kyiv-based think tank. Ukraine has argued that it's in Trump’s interest to develop the remainder before Russian advances capture more.
FILE - President Donald Trump, right, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office at the White House, Feb. 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Mystyslav Chernov, File)
President Donald Trump welcomes Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
