--- alias: - Systematics Inc. - Systematics Information Services - ALLTEL Information Services category: Private Organization created: 2026-09-21 location: Little Rock, Arkansas start: 1968 summary: Little Rock bank data-processing company controlled by Jackson Stephens, sued in 1978 over the BCCI acquisition of Financial General Bankshares, represented by Hillary Rodham, and the subject of a 1995 CIA and NSA briefing to Congress. tags: - Organization - Systematics - JacksonStephens - BCCI - RoseLawFirm - BankDataProcessing - PROMIS - ALLTEL updated: 2026-09-21 --- Systematics Inc. was a [Little Rock](/places/little-rock-arkansas/) company that ran the data processing of banks under contract. Walter V. Smiley, a former [IBM](/organizations/ibm/) employee teaching at the University of Arkansas, founded it in 1968 with eight employees and 400,000 dollars from the family of [Jackson Stephens](/people/jackson-stephens/), introduced through Jon Jacoby of [Stephens Inc.](/organizations/stephens-inc/), which took 80 percent of the stock. By the mid 1980s it was the largest supplier of data-processing services to American financial institutions. ALLTEL acquired it in 1990.[^1][^2] ### Financial General Bankshares Stephens was a large shareholder in [Financial General Bankshares](/organizations/financial-general-bankshares/) of Washington. It was later alleged that he wanted the bank holding company to give its data processing to Systematics, which he denied. On November 9, 1977, Stephens, [Bert Lance](/people/bert-lance/), and [Curt Bradbury](/people/curt-bradbury/) of Stephens Inc. met Abdus Sami of the [Bank of Credit and Commerce International](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/) in Little Rock, and Stephens and Bradbury allegedly recommended that the bank or its clients buy Financial General stock. Over the next two months four Middle Eastern investors, clients of the bank's founder [Agha Hasan Abedi](/people/agha-hasan-abedi/), bought it.[^3] Financial General sued on February 17, 1978, naming Lance, the bank, Abedi, the Washington lawyer Eugene Metzger, Stephens, Stephens Inc., and Systematics, which the complaint described as "a data processing corporation which performed data processing services for banks." The [Securities and Exchange Commission](/organizations/securities-and-exchange-commission/) brought its own action, and on March 18 the Stephens defendants, Lance, Metzger, Abedi, the bank, and the investors consented to permanent injunctions. Systematics was dismissed from the private suit four days later, on March 22. Stephens and Stephens Inc. won summary judgment on July 20. "Mrs. Clinton even represented one of Stephens's companies in a case related to BCCI," two reporters for The Wall Street Journal wrote in 1992; "in 1978, she did legal work for Systematics Inc. when it was sued for its role in Abedi's scheme to collect stock in First American."[^3][^4] ### Sale to ALLTEL When Smiley retired in 1988, Stephens telephoned the president of IBM for a recommendation, met John Steuri, an IBM vice president of 24 years' service, once, and hired him. Sales rose from 263 million dollars in 1988 to 579 million in 1992. Joe T. Ford of ALLTEL, the Little Rock telephone company, had discussed a purchase with Stephens before Steuri's arrival. ALLTEL's annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission dates the acquisition to May 1990; the trade press put the price at 528 million dollars in stock. Within a year the subsidiary bought Horizon Financial Software of Orlando, the mortgage processor Computer Dynamics, the cellular billing software of C-TEC Corporation, and Systems Limited, "an international banking software firm headquartered in Hong Kong." In 1992 it bought Computer Power Inc., the largest processor of residential mortgages in the country. By 1994, as ALLTEL Information Services, it reported that its software processed nearly 15 million mortgage loans representing more than 1.1 trillion dollars, and that its market included "financial institutions outside the [United States](/places/united-states/), primarily in Europe and Asia." Fidelity National Financial bought the unit in 2003 for 1.05 billion dollars.[^1][^2][^5] ### The 1995 Briefing In August 1995 the magazine Media Bypass published an article by James R. Norman, a senior editor at Forbes, which Forbes had declined to print. It alleged that Systematics was used by the [National Security Agency](/organizations/nsa/) to monitor bank transactions, in connection with the [PROMIS](/programs/promis/) software of [INSLAW](/organizations/inslaw/), and that Vince Foster, the [Rose Law Firm](/organizations/rose-law-firm/) partner who handled the company's account and who had been found dead in Fort Marcy Park on July 20, 1993, oversaw the arrangement for the agency. The company denied it. On July 21, 1995, at the written request of Representative James Leach, chairman of the House Banking Committee, officers of the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/)'s inspector general and the NSA's inspector general, Frank Newton, briefed Leach and a staff member in the Rayburn Building. The CIA's memorandum of the meeting records Leach as saying that "most of the allegations contained within the articles were probably false," but that "as information goes out to the American public in non-traditional ways, it becomes more believable." He was told that "a thorough search had been conducted by CIA regarding PROMIS/Inslaw issues relating to Systematics, Inc., Mena, and Hadron, during a much earlier timeframe," and that "we had not found any records related to Systematics of [Arkansas](/places/arkansas/), a banking software firm." The agency's written briefing states: "We have found no record of any CIA contact or contracts with Systematics, Inc. of Arkansas, nor any information about the allegations that Systematics, Inc. monitored or engaged in illegal activities." Leach asked about 45 further questions and said he might hold hearings that fall.[^6] [^1]: "Systematics sees opportunity beyond bank outsourcing," *American Banker,* September 3, 1993. [^2]: "An emerging giant: $1.6-billion Alltel and Systematics are positioned for corporate greatness," *Arkansas Business*; "Bank data pioneer still in business: Systematics' founder Smiley leading family tech firm," *Arkansas Business.* [^3]: Truell, Peter, and Larry Gurwin. *False Profits: The Inside Story of BCCI, the World's Most Corrupt Financial Empire*. Houghton Mifflin, 1992, pp. 41 and 428. [^4]: Financial General Bankshares, Inc. v. Metzger, 523 F. Supp. 744 (D.D.C. 1981), on appeal, 680 F.2d 768 (D.C. Cir. 1982); Securities and Exchange Commission v. Bank of Credit and Commerce International, S.A., Civil Action No. 78-0469 (D.D.C.). [^5]: ALLTEL Corporation, Form 10-K for the fiscal year 1994, Securities and Exchange Commission. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0000065873/000006587395000002/0000065873-95-000002.txt [^6]: Central Intelligence Agency, "Briefing for Chairman Leach, House Banking Committee," undated, and "Memorandum for the Record," briefing of July 21, 1995, both approved for release September 28, 2009. CIA Reading Room documents 0001289820 and 0001289686.