Global Lending Services is on pace to grow origination volume 50% year over year, to $1.7 billion, Chief Executive Steve Thibodeau told Auto Finance News. By the end of 2020, Thibodeau expects GLS to originate $2.2 billion of auto loans.
GLS has doubled origination volume for the past two years, to $560 million in 2017 and to $1.1 billion last year. The hike in originations has spurred GLS’s portfolio to grow 56% to $2.5 billion, from $1.6 billion in 2018.
Also read: Global Lending Services bets long-term success on direct business
Meanwhile, the Greenville, S.C.-based auto lender has grown its staff by 50% over the past year, to nearly 750 employees, Thibodeau said, investing talent in all areas across sales, operations, finance, risk, and IT. He anticipates breaking through the 1,000-employee mark before the end of 2020.
GLS is slated to begin testing a direct lending platform next week and, “if all goes well,” the subprime lender would begin to roll out the product nationally by February or March, Thibodeau added.
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