Western Funding Inc. will adopt e-contracting by yearend, following parent Westlake Financial Service’s rollout of the e-signature solution late last year, Auto Finance News has learned.
“At every place where we have a touchpoint with our dealers, we are looking to use technology to make it easier to not only submit deals to us but to get the right information to us to enable a fast, efficient funding process,” Jim Murray, president of Western Funding, told AFN. “I can see that e-contracting will help with that.”
Westlake Financial Services expanded its e-contracting solution to all 50 states last October. The lender first piloted an e-contracting solution in February 2016 through RouteOne, however, Westlake began rolling out in-house e-contracting at the start of 2017 through its DealerCenter servicing platform.
“You learn a lot about the system and how it impacts users when you [roll out slowly],” Murray said. “Invariably, you find kinks and work them out.” The relationship between Western Funding and Westlake is “symbiotic,” Murray said, and the partners are leveraging increased adoption and technology integrations to improve the rollout.
