Westlake Technology Holdings is establishing itself as a financier for dealerships “on all levels” with a program to provide commercial real estate loans to auto dealers, Group President Ian Anderson announced in a press release this week. The program, called Westlake Capital Finance, is the Los Angeles-based lender’s newest business venture to become a holistic […]

Investors eyeing auto finance stocks are turning to OneMain Finacial (OMF), which had the highest share performance during the third quarter, outpacing Ally Financial and Santander Consumer USA (SCUSA), according to a research report released this week by JPMorgan.   OneMain Financial’s third quarter share performance reached 15.2%, compared with Ally Financial at 7.6%, and Santander […]

Bank of America is planning to revamp its online lending portal and “take it to another level,” as dealer adoption has spurred a boost in volume, Tim Owens, consumer vehicle lending sales executive, told Auto Finance News. The goal is to create a “Gen 2” version of the portal, which will provide more optionality for […]

Consumer Portfolio Services is experiencing higher capture rates as a result of a new scorecard that was implemented last year, Senior Vice President of Risk Management Chris Terry told Auto Finance News.  Nine months post-implementation, “CPS is seeing the results without negatively impacting our pricing,” Terry said. The difference between CPS’s new consumer-focused scorecard versus […]

Toyota Financial Services is “in the planning stages” to replace its entire telephony system, which will allow for customer service channels including messaging and chatbots, said Kim Cockrell, vice president of service operations. The Plano, Texas-based lender will move to a cloud-based system in 2020 and “hopefully we’ll see some early winds before 2021,” Cockrell […]

A bill in the Alabama House of Representatives would require auto dealers to disclose to consumers the amount of compensation the dealer receives from the financial institution that funds the loan. House Bill 10, filed by Republican Rep. Becky Nordgren at the end of September, was assigned to the Financial Services Committee for review on […]

More than a year after Ford Motor Credit sued Reagor-Dykes Auto Group for hiding one of the largest floorplan financing frauds in history, the dealership chain’s chief executive has been ordered to pay up.  Bart Reagor is required to pay the captive $53.8 million, according to a final ruling decided after a two-day jury trial […]

While the majority of dealers surveyed by Auto Finance News said that at least 10% of their customers came to the dealership with preapproved auto loans, respondents said the rate at which those preapprovals were converted into funded loans fell on both ends of the spectrum. For nearly half of respondents, fewer than 10% of […]

Subscription app Fair is set to be featured as an available finance source to more than 18,000 dealerships as the startup integrates with RouteOne, the companies announced today.  Fair’s latest partnership places the startup as a finance option on RouteOne’s platform alongside companies like Ally Financial, Chase Auto, Toyota Financial Services and 1,400 other lenders. Fair […]