Westlake Financial Services will launch an e-contracting program to its dealer partners within the next two weeks, David Goff, Westlake’s assistant vice president of marketing, told Auto Finance News. The Los Angeles-based auto lender will partner with RouteOne to offer paperless capabilities.
“We are piloting the program with franchise dealers in California as of yesterday [Feb. 15],” Goff said. “Depending on how that pilot goes, we will determine the launch date.”
Westlake is adding the e-contracting functionality in the hopes it will increase financing volume and customer satisfaction, as well as speed funding, Goff added. “Most of the franchise dealers don’t do e-contracting because there are still some hiccups with it,” he said. “I think it’s going to continue to grow at the speed at which it helps speed funding — anytime you can fund a dealer faster, they’re happy. I think that tool or that service will continue to evolve and get better.”
Westlake is also in the discussion phase of offering e-contracting to its powersports dealer partners. “Our hope is that as we roll it out on the auto side, we can roll it out on the powersports side as well,” Goff said.
