Westlake Financial Services launched a super-prime financing program to expand its credit band to full-spectrum, the company announced last week.
The lender will focus on providing the offering to independent used-vehicle dealerships that lack access to prime credit offerings through national banks, Westlake President Ian Anderson told Auto Finance News.
“Our goal at Westlake is to be a full-spectrum lender, and it has been for quite some time,” Anderson said. “We’re really focusing on helping the independent dealers sell used vehicles, because a lot of the time they don’t have the relationships with the banks to help people with prime credit.”
The program — dubbed the Titanium Plan — will provide financing rates as low as 2.99% to consumers with credit scores of at least 750.
“In 2008 our average Fico was 540, and now our average Fico is about 625,” he said. “We’ve really changed our credit spectrum to be a full-spectrum lender, and this [strategy] really enhances that.”
Because the credit is stronger in this tier, the loan-to-value ratio will also be “a bit higher,” mirroring the higher vehicle prices, he added.
Westlake expects this program to bump up its average amount financed in California to $22,000 from $18,500.
“Our market is every dealer, every consumer, nationwide,” Anderson said in a press release. The privately held company has $6.4 billion in outstandings, up 19% year over year, Anderson said.
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