TechSpotlight: From Underwriting to Electronic Lien and Title Programs, Lenders Eye Tech Enhancements

Exeter Finance Corp. is considering technology to speed the front-end verification process, while CarFinance Capital LLC plans to implement a new solution to shave a day off funding time. With competition intensifying, lenders are increasingly seeking methods to improve workflows and streamline operations to enhance efficiency, increase profits, and strengthen relationships with customers and dealers.

CarFinance Capital (www.carfinancecapital.com), for one, is implementing a Dealertrack Technologies (www.dealertrack.com) product that will eliminate paperwork associated with loan funding. “We are expecting it will enable us to fund the dealers quicker by up to a full day,” President and Chief Executive Jim Landy told Auto Finance News. “We also believe it will be a more productive environment for us.” The initiative is slated to be completed next quarter.

Canadian lender Rifco National Auto Finance Corp. is making improvements to its origination process as part of a plan to create the infrastructure necessary to originate as much as $500 million of loans a year. Last month Red Deer, Alberta-based Rifco (www.rifco.net) implemented uAdjudicate Workflow, a product developed by Decisioning Solutions (www.decisioningsolutions.com) to process applications more efficiently. Ultimately, Rifco expects the new system to help it deliver improved response times and more consistent loan decisions.

Meanwhile, Regions Bank Dealer Financial Services and American Honda Finance Corp. are in the throes of more comprehensive initiatives. For Regions (www.regions.com), a 12-to-15-month project will render it paperless, including all communications with customers and dealers, plus completion of its homegrown ePACS system to interface with its loan and underwriting systems. The Birmingham, Ala.-based bank is also working to make ACAPS, the underwriting system, more proficient. “We’re enhancing our underwriters’ screens where they basically will have a one-screen view, and they’ll be able to click in and out [to get customers’ information] without leaving the screens, instead of having to toggle back and forth,” said Senior Vice President and Head of DFS Tom Lazenby.

Lazenby was tapped late last month to oversee Regions’ foray into direct auto lending, and plans to leverage the bank’s indirect lending platform. “We’ll make it seamless no matter what point of entry [a customer] comes into the bank,” he said, adding that the centralized and automated functionality will minimize paperwork required by branch staffers.

At AHFC (www.hondafinancialservices.com), the goal is to optimize dealership and brand loyalty. Specifically, the captive plans to design and develop a solution to streamline the vehicle sales financing process and improve the customer buying experience at Acura and Honda car and powersports dealers. The initiative, in collaboration with Dealertrack, will have a multiple-phase rollout in the next two years and will include improvements to sales, F&I, and contracting workflow procedures.

Regional Acceptance Corp. and Crescent Bank & Trust are focusing their workflow improvement measures on title administration. Greenville, N.C.-based subprime financier Regional Acceptance (www.regionalacceptance.com) has implemented Dealertrack’s Total Title Solution, a move meant to better control expenses and enhance customer service, Vice President of Operations Will Sargent said in a statement. New Orleans-based nonprime lender Crescent Bank & Trust chose VINtek to manage lien transfer and title information in states that have electronic lien and title (ELT) programs. The VINtek solution will enable Crescent Bank (www.cbtno.com) to manage changes in liens and title status, trace applications and payments, and minimize IT expenses by eliminating the need to build interfaces with ELT programs in different states. As a result, the bank will be able to fund dealers faster and reduce office space requirements because it has less paper to store, the company said.

Meanwhile, Westlake Financial Services (www.westlakefinancial.com) has enlisted a third-party provider to scan loan documents rather than have employees manually input data from faxes. Starting last month, the Los Angeles-based lender mandated that its 17,000 dealers overnight ― rather than fax ― loan packages using prepaid FedEx labels addressed to a facility in Memphis. The goal: to take a day off average funding time. With faxing, “too many things slow [the process] down,” said Marketing Director David Goff.

Exeter (www.exeterfinance.com) is considering third-party service providers to speed the front-end verification process. Typically, Exeter’s verification procedures take a day or two, depending on how quickly people respond. If the company can tap into a database to confirm addresses or phone numbers, it could shave a day off the process, said Chief Executive Mark Floyd.

―Nikki Mascali

Published in the March 2013 issue of Auto Finance News TechSpotlight, through the generous support of FIS.