Citizens One Auto Finance is “refreshing” its originations platform to speed the credit approval process and improve communications with dealer partners, Craig Lamp, Citizens Bank’s head of auto lending, told Auto Finance News.
The process of improving the platform is underway now and is expected to be completed by mid-2018, he said.
“We are making some investments in the business related to our indirect business,” Lamp said. “It’s a really big project for us, and it shows the investment back into the business; it should deliver some real tangible benefits for us from a customer experience perspective, as well as from a product side. That’s probably our biggest initiative.”
Specifically, the refresh aims to improve communications and better automate the credit approval process by reducing response times and turnaround times, he added. The bank is in the process of reducing its auto portfolio to focus more on profitable dealers, according to the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
In 2016 the company grew its auto loans outstanding to $13.9 billion up from $13.8 billion the year prior according the the Big Wheels Report. Originations have already started to decline to $6.8 billion in 2016 compared with $7.6 billion the year prior.
