‘Larger Participant’ DriveTime Preps for Possible CFPB Exam

Phoenix-based DriveTime is preparing for when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau comes knocking, now that it qualifies as a Larger Participant as defined by the bureau, Chief Financial Officer Kurt Wood said during a panel discussion at Used Car Week in November.

“For example, 10 to 15 calls for each loan advisor, per month, are being reviewed by a quality assurance team,” Wood said. “All the deals that we do at our dealerships, we not only audio-record, we video-record as well, particularly as that pertains to ancillary products.”

The buy-here pay-here lender is also in the process of removing phones from loan officers’ desks, to handle consumers who have requested not to be contacted by phone. “If you take all the phones away, you can only call through the computer, and you just have tighter control,” he said. As part of the company’s ongoing preparation, DriveTime has even done mock examinations with third-party consultants. “Fortunately, we’ve always been on the right side of those reviews, but we’re always trying to look at it from the perspective of what we could do better,” Wood said. “But it takes capital, you have to be a certain scale to be able to have that type of outreach, that type of quality assurance with your organization, and then do mock examinations.”

The CFPB previously ordered DriveTime to pay an $8 million civil penalty in November 2014, after it allegedly made what the agency called “harassing debt collection calls” and provided inaccurate credit information to credit reporting agencies.

This story originally appeared in Auto Finance News Update. Subscribe to receive more exclusive stories in your inbox.