Veros Credit is doubling down on technology for dealers as the subprime lender builds out its dealer portal with digital capabilities, Chief Executive Cyrus Bozorgi told Auto Finance News.
By yearend, all dealers using the Veros portal will have access to e-contracting, Bozorgi said. “It’s cleaner, faster and also it’s more secure for us to have the e-contract than have the paper that goes through all these custodians back and forth, so compliance-wise it’s much better,” he said.
Veros launched the dealer portal six months ago to a select group of dealers, and all 2,000 dealers the company works with should have access to the portal by the end of the year.
“Every month we have projects to develop and enhance it,” Bozorgi said, adding that “we have about 100 dealers that are piloting our dealer portal, so as we bring out new features, we’re adding another 100 dealers or so.”
Veros has already released several products on its dealer portal that allow dealers to upload stipulations through their mobile devices, view their performance, track engagement with Veros and deal structures with an automated response.
Also read: Veros Credit to pilot direct lending
“I was a dealer myself 25 years ago and so I understand what they need, and the need has not changed for dealers: They want their money in their bank as soon as possible, and whoever can deliver that more quickly will get the deal,” Bozorgi said.
As such, Veros has put resources into quicker verifications and cut down its funding time to dealers to two days on average. Three years ago, funding could take up to five days, and the reduction in time “has helped quite a bit to fuel our originations,” Bozorgi noted.
Separately, Veros issued its third ever asset-backed securitization this week, a $247 million issuance backed by nonprime quality loans, according to a Moody’s Investors Service presale report. Veros Credit was established in 1998 and operates in 19 states. At yearend 2019, the subprime lender had a portfolio of $372 million assets, according to the Moody’s report.
