Santander Looks to Grow RoadLoans.com

Santander Consumer USA drove $69 million worth of volume through online origination portal RoadLoans.com in the second quarter, up 35% from the same period the year prior, the company reported in earnings earlier this month.

The portal only accounted for 1.3% of the company’s $5.5 billion in originations for the quarter and Chief Executive Jason Kulas said he is looking to grow it.

“There are these other digital ways of accessing consumers and doing car deals that are starting to pop up from place to place, and we don’t want to be left behind as those make headway to the industry,” Kulas told Auto Finance News in June. “It’s a very small percentage of our overall business — dealers drive the bulk of what we do — but, we have a foothold in that business with a digital presence. We continue to talk about ways to not only build that digital presence, but also ways to partner with others.”

Kulas declined to name third-party partners Santander is considering, however — as the company tightens credit and expects further declines in originations — it will be important to get more “looks” at loans, he said.

“One of the ways we can do that is by continuing to have an increasing presence in the online world,” he said in June. “We’re always going to hold the line on credit, and having a low capture rate on a lot more applications still results in an OK amount of volume.”