Yamaha Financial brings prime lending in-house for full-spectrum program
Yamaha Financial Services has launched a full-spectrum loan program, the “last major piece” of its captive business model, Lyndon Elam, vice president of retail sales, marketing and operations, told Powersports Finance. The program is for all Yamaha dealers effective immediately.
“We utilize feedback from Yamaha dealers, and in particular, our Yamaha Dealer Council, to prioritize changes,” Elam said. “Since we launched our nonprime program back in 2015, these groups have requested that we replace a prime-only installment program with a true full-spectrum credit program to improve their ease of use by delivering a one-stop option.”
Previously, Yamaha was directly originating only nonprime loans; the captive worked with Synchrony Financial to finance prime loans. The captive declined to comment when its Synchrony contract was to expire or the size of its prime loan portfolio. “Yamaha has been a fantastic partner of Synchrony’s for the last 15 years, and we greatly appreciate their amazing dealer community and passionate Yamaha customers,” a Synchrony spokeswoman told PSF. “Synchrony continues to offer the powersports industry compelling financing programs that leverage our innovative Business Center technology and marketing capabilities for the dealers.”
“The change allows us to offer promotions and incentives that we were previously unable to offer to our dealers and customers,” Elam explained. “For example, we will offer new dealer incentives and attractive special financing promotions. In addition, we are expanding our finance program to include boat packages with Yamaha outboard engines.”
Additionally, the captive is increasing the allowances for ancillary products through its Y.E.S., Y-GAP and prepaid maintenance programs.
Yamaha also rebuilt its origination system, which includes several upgrades such as adding multiple units to one contract and allowing dealers to make changes after acquiring new information. The new system also allows dealers to alter the contract structure and see if it still matches the approval.
“Our new installment origination system allows dealers to dynamically update the contract’s structure with a real-time pass/fail indicator to help dealers assess whether the structure still fits the approval,” Elam explained. “This will be a delighter for F&I staff who like to assess different scenarios for customers. It will also cut down on the time dealers spend rehashing or resubmitting applications for review.”
To accommodate the new program, Yamaha expanded its dealer service center credit and funding staff in Cypress, Calif., and Marietta, Ga. The captive is also expanding the field sales team; the risk, compliance and finance group; and the in-house servicing and remarketing teams to manage the new portfolio.
