Huntington Auto Finance is exploring opportunities for collaboration with financial technology startups, to originate loans online, said Richard Porrello, director of auto finance and dealer services. “It’s top of mind for us,” he said.
The company also brought Gerrod Parchmon, senior vice president of auto finance product and strategy, onto the team in November 2016, in part, to assist in the search. Parchmon and Porrello were in attendance at CBA Live in March to hear from a number of vendors, the executives told Auto Finance News.
“We were trying to be thoughtful around understanding what [the vendors’] point of view looks like, what our dealers’ point of view looks like — because they are our primary customer — and what our alignment opportunities are with our respective parties,” Parchmon said. “One of the common threads is that both the dealer and the fintechs are being very thoughtful about the overall consumer lifecycle, particularly in the early stages when that consumer is doing research, trying to make the decision around what kind of vehicle they should purchase, how they should go about purchasing it, and also thinking about providing a great customer experience.”
Huntington currently offers a program that allows dealers to customize a borrower’s loan based on up to 20 pre-approved options, without having to go back to the lender — which can be provided almost instantly, Porrello said.
“70% of what we do happens in three seconds or less,” he said. “So that’s really efficient, but what can we do to get better at the other 30% of our applications?”
