2022 Auto Finance Excellence Awards: Honoring resiliency in a challenging market

Auto lenders, retailers and executives have pushed their businesses forward throughout the past year in the face of a market defined by macroeconomic uncertainty, decreasing consumer demand and rising interest rates. They also found ways to serve their communities and launch new and innovative financing programs.  

Auto Finance News recognized these efforts with the 2022 Auto Finance Excellence Awards, presented last week as part of the 2022 Auto Finance Summit in Las Vegas. The 18th annual awards recognize charitable and community efforts, innovation and product development, and noteworthy deals or joint ventures within the auto finance industry.  

The awards also recognize auto finance executives who during their career have pushed the envelope not only at their own organization, but throughout the entire industry.  

Tricolor serves credit invisible Hispanic community 

Tricolor Auto Acceptance serves thin- and no-file Hispanic consumers by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to underwrite consumers on data other than credit history. 

“We’ve developed technology which enables us to ‘score the unscorable’ and underwrite a credit– invisible Hispanic consumer without the benefit of any bureau data,” Chief Executive Daniel Chu told AFN. 

The Dallas-based subprime lender earned an Auto Finance Excellence Award for Community Service for its work in providing affordable loans to Hispanic communities in five states along the U.S. and Mexico border across 55 retail hubs. Tricolor’s origination volume as of September was projected to land at $750 million by yearend 2022, Chu previously said. 

Tricolor continues to expand geographically despite economic pressures. The lender is launching services in Chicago in 2023, which is the fourth-largest Hispanic market in the U.S., Chu said this week. 

Tricolor in September opened its 9th reconditioning facility in Wilmer, Texas, to meet the demand for used vehicles. The 200,000-square-foot facility has 200 service bays along with a paint and body center to perform a 150-point inspection on used vehicles. Tricolor plans to open another facility by mid-2023. 

The lender’s community service focus also extends to its funding strategy. Tricolor issued in April a $212 million social asset-backed securities deal, designated as such because it uses capital toward positive social outcomes in communities. The lender will use the capital to grow its platform and provide more underserved Hispanic consumers with affordable rates on auto loans, Chu previously told AFN. 

“Earlier this year, we became the first issuer in all of subprime auto to issue a social bond, which was an incredible distinction for our capital markets platform,” he said this week. “This helps position us to continue to grow our model.” 

The lender has disbursed more than $2 billion in auto loans over the past 15 years, according to Kroll Bond Rating Agency. 

Vroom moves strategy forward with acquisition of UACC 

Vroom at the beginning of the year completed its $300 million acquisition of United Auto Credit Corp. (UACC), an effort first initiated in October 2021 to establish a captive finance arm. The transaction marked the largest acquisition within the auto finance industry so far this year.  

Vroom was awarded an Auto Finance News Excellence Award for Strategy on the heels of the completed acquisition of UACC and the subsequent integration of UACC’s technology stacks and proprietary loan origination system onto Vroom’s platform. UACC’s technology speeds loan decisioning to within seconds, Chief Revenue Officer Mark Roszkowski previously told Auto Finance News. 

“UACC’s journey moves from being a subprime lender to being a captive for Vroom,” UACC Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Bruce Newmark said when accepting the award. “We accept this on behalf of all those who we call ‘Vroommates’ and our UACC colleagues that are working so hard to build the best e–commerce platform and customer experience in the industry.” 

As a part of the transaction, UACC became a wholly owned subsidiary of Vroom and continues to operate as United Auto Credit. The acquisition brings more than 8,000 dealership partners to Vroom’s platform and adds about 500 UACC employees.  

UACC had a managed portfolio of approximately $823 million as of May 31, a 40% increase year over year according to an S&P Global presale report of the lender’s 2022-2 securitization, the lender’s second ABS transaction since being acquired by Vroom but 21st deal since UACC entered the capital markets.  

Experian’s Melinda Zabritski: A leading voice on credit data and analysis 

Over the past 24 years, Melinda Zabritski, senior director of automotive financial solutions at Experian, has become one of the industry’s leading voices on credit performance, loan terms, credit tier market share and EV financing. 

Zabritski has been at the forefront of using data for analysis in the auto finance industry and began to leverage data when such a strategy was at its infancy. For her forethought and dedication, Zabritski earned an Auto Finance Excellence Award for Leadership. 

In her role with Experian, Zabritski is responsible for advising on services and products in the automotive credit and lending industry, according to LinkedIn. Since joining Experian in 2004, she has overseen the product management for Experian Automotive’s lending channel along with developing marketing strategy for the company’s automotive credit vertical sales channel. Zabritski is Experian’s primary analyst regarding trends in auto finance. 

“Melinda has led our thought leadership initiatives from the beginning,” Mike Wenstrup, Experian’s vice president of automotive lender sales, told AFN in a provided statement. “With her leadership, the data is trusted by countless partners in the industry and media outlets across the country. Her dedication and passion for the auto finance industry shows through in everything she does, for both Experian and our customers.”  

Zabritski has had a hand in shaping Experian’s approach in nearly every aspect of the business, having held multiple leadership positions throughout her tenure. She has served as senior director of sales, senior director of financial solutions consulting, senior director of product, marketing and thought leadership for automotive finance, and senior marketing manager.  

Auto lenders and professionals today rely on Zabritski’s knowledge and analysis to identify industry trends and inform their own strategies.  

“Melinda and I began our careers at Experian at nearly the same time and I have had the pleasure of working alongside and learning from her for over 18 years,” Karl Krupp, senior automotive solutions consultant at Experian, told AFN. “Her quarterly State of the Automotive Finance Market presentations are anxiously anticipated and provide lenders with the data and thought leadership that Experian is known for.” 

Westlake’s Ian Anderson recognized for distinct vision  

Ian Anderson, Group President at Westlake Financial, since 2005 has spearheaded day-to-day operations at the lender, helping to expand its credit box to the full spectrum while realizing his vision to revolutionize the auto finance industry through technology.  

Anderson was awarded an Auto Finance Excellence Award for Leadership in recognition of Westlake’s evolution and standing as a tech leader in the auto finance space.  

“We’ve been very lucky to have great partnerships with Ally and Capital One and some of the other large groups out there,” Anderson said during a fireside chat at the Auto Finance Summit. “Because [of our] automation, we can look at about 650,000 applications a month.” 

Anderson has expanded Westlake’s presence within the wider financial services industry as well. The financier recently automated insurance claim processing, Anderson told AFN. 

Westlake in October launched a credit card rewards program, allowing users of the Westlake Black Credit Card to earn 2% cash back on qualified automotive-related purchases including maintenance. Westlake also in 2021 improved its access to underserved markets by launching a partnership with fintech Nova Credit to assess risk on thin- to no-file credit borrowers. 

Anderson was appointed group president at Westlake in 2008 and oversees growth, business strategy and execution for the lender and its six subsidiaries, according to his bio. In 2007, Anderson was named senior vice president of production, business strategy and analytics after joining Westlake in 2005.  

During Anderson’s tenure, Westlake Financial grew its portfolio to $12.1 billion in total managed assets as of February 2021. The financier has set a goal of reaching $20 billion in assets by 2026, according to a company statement. 

Westlake is looking to leverage dealer relationships to grow, Anderson said at the Summit. 

“It’s amazing to me how much opportunity there is out there with dealers that don’t do business with you today. [We will] talk to a dealer that thinks that we’re still subprime,” he said. “A big push for us recently has been exotic auto finance deals. We can do more … [but] it’s not as easy as people think.”