As credit unions are feeling the pressure of competition in auto finance, Forum Credit Union will adopt e-contracting for its 150 dealership partners by yearend to regain marketshare, Ben Wire, dealer division manager, told Auto Finance News.
The Fishers, Ind.-based credit union first piloted e-contracting with “a few” of its dealer partners last quarter, Wire said, noting that it worked with RouteOne’s e-contracting for the pilot phase. “We just reached out to RouteOne yesterday to go ahead and turn all the dealers [we work with] to use e-contracting — we let them know that we are ready,” he said.
By leveraging e-contracting, Forum CU was able to receive a loan application from one of its dealers and fund the loan in 34 minutes, Wire said. “The first two loans we tried, we funded in half an hour, and since then those dealers are giving us more contracts and promise to give us more than they have in the past.”
As margins are squeezed, the goal for the credit union is to increase marketshare, Wire said. “The next step for us is to use e-contracting through Dealertrack,” he said. “With thinning margins, we are looking into anything we can do to keep auto loans coming in and remain profitable.” The credit union aims to adopt Dealertrack’s e-contracting tool by yearend.
Forum CU serves 120,000 members and anticipates originations to total $330 million by yearend, Wire said.
