Fiducial to Buy Mortgage Banker, Title Firm

Fiducial, an international provider of outsourcing services to small businesses, has announced an agreement to acquire Frontier Lending Corp., an Indianapolis-based mortgage banker, as well as Frontier Financial Consultants and Diamond Title & Escrow Inc.The terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Yves Morard-Lacroix, Fiducial's executive vice president, said acquiring Frontier has put Fiducial on the financial services map. "This acquisition -- we are now a broker-dealer and a mortgage banker -- is a major step for Fiducial because it enables us to offer services that our small-business clients expected from us and to be a one-stop-shop provider to them," said Mr. Morard-Lacroix, who heads Fiducial's U.S. operations. The lending and financial companies will be operating as Fiducial Lending Corp. and Fiducial Investment Advisors Inc., respectively, while the title company will retain its pre-acquisition name. Fiducial can be found online at http://www.fiducial.com.