Growing the floorplan business continues to be high on the agenda for Westlake Financial Services this year, executives said.
“The floorplan company is at about $120 million in total receivables, and our plan is to be at $300 million by the end of the year, so nearly tripling the size from where we are today,” Ian Anderson, Westlake’s president, told Auto Finance News. “We have 35 flooring sales reps now, and plans are to get 60 to 70 by yearend.”
Westlake made a “full commitment” to establishing its position in floorplanning with the inception of Westlake Flooring Services in 2012, said Pat Amato, vice president of the subsidiary. “We aligned our floorplan product with the financing options to offer Westlake dealers more incentives and lower costs of capital,” he said in an email exchange.
The desired outcome is to provide dealers with a captive-style suite of services, Anderson added. Westlake also began moving up the credit spectrum on the indirect side, he said. “We are still a full-spectrum lender, but our average Fico is in the 600-range now, compared to 540 from before.”
Westlake’s latest securitization, a $450 million transaction slated to close Jan. 21, has a weighted average Fico score of 601, down from 604 in the company’s previous securitization, according to a presale report from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. The report, released last Monday, noted that the percentage of loans with a Fico of 540 to 599 increased to 20.6%, from 19.3% in the prior transaction.
