Turner Acceptance Corp. plans to make upgrades to its automated underwriting platform by the end of the year, which is just one of many plays to boost its investment in innovation, according to Ruben Fridman, the company’s chief financial officer.
Turner first implemented the automated system in the fourth quarter of 2015. Phase two will include integrating and enhancing its decision and scoring logic, as well as improving its analytics and data sets from the origination platform, he told AFN. The company is implementing the upgrades in order to quicken decisions and be “more nimble in adjusting our program,” he added.
The upgrade comes in tandem with Turner’s plans to boost its technology investments to make the consumer buying process more efficient and improve transaction speed. This year, Turner Acceptance looks to implement e-contracting and expand its consumer and dealer communication features — such as texting and multimedia messaging service.
Finally making the switch to e-contracting is an “ongoing process, because we are looking to find the right partners,” he said. “For our organization size, our concerns are making sure we can address the regulatory and capital partners that we have, relative to e-contracting.”
“The texting features will be integrated within the funding process, for communicating with the dealer and customer,” he added. “Likewise, MMS will provide a mechanism to capture images of documents to complete the funding process as a replacement for paper copies or faxes.”
Chicago-based Turner Acceptance Corp. considers itself a “fast follower” in the industry when it comes to investing in innovation, and “I think that’s driven by our size and availability of capital to invest in developing solutions from the ground up,” Fridman said. The lender currently makes loans for 300 dealers.