Mercedes-Benz USA named Brian Fulton vice president in charge of captive unit Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA, effective Jan. 1, 2014. He will succeed Dietmar Exler, who was appointed vice president of sales at the OEM.
Fulton will oversee U.S. operations for MBFS and will report to Peter Zieringer, president and CEO of Daimler Financial Services for the Americas region. Fulton is currently president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Auto Finance China, where he’s responsible for operations in China and Hong Kong. He worked for Ford Motor Credit and Toyota Motor Credit before joining MBFS Canada in 1994 as an assistant regional manager.
In his new post, Exler will oversee the manufacturer’s sales, volume planning, and distribution operations in the United States, reporting to Steve Cannon, president and CEO of MBUSA. Exler succeeds Michael Slagter, senior vice president of sales, who will retire Feb. 28, 2014.
I totally can appreciate what your saying Mike having originated mortgage loans, slinging paper as a Finance Manager, and most recently working for Experian. Actually, most of us don’t understand that there are different types of specialized risk models that consist of different types of score card to calculate your credit score and each credit bureau has their own proprietary risk model as well. For instance, most captive auto manufacturer lenders want the Auto Fico V2 risk model overlay when review a consumer’s credit score as it gives a little higher weighting to the person’s previous 24 month auto trade line history. So, if a person has had a previous auto credit tradeline and they have paid on time, they will have a marginal credit score lift when comparing an Auto enhanced or Auto overlay risk model. Currently, I have seen some lenders moving to the new Fico V08 model which strips out authorized user account tradelines and modifys some other inquiry score weights. In addition to the type of risk score, each bureau has it’s own proprietary score, such as Experian-Scorex Plus, Equifax-Beacon, and TransUnion-Empirica. Also, each bureau has it’s own way of storing data and updating a consumer’s tradeline as well, which is why it’s a great idea for a lender to use multiple bureaus depending on file strength. Overall, lenders are opening their eyes to different risk models, like the Vantage mentioned above outside of Fair Isaac Co’s FICO risk model, and are accepting consumers with say just a mortgage late or even a mortgage foreclosure. Lenders have made a lot of progress from even just 10 years ago where most lenders just looked at one bureaus fico score, without an auto enhancement, etc. Indeed, there are specialized credit risk models just as their are specialized pitchers in the MLB. I like the analogy!