Platinum Auto Finance plans 8-state expansion

Platinum Auto Finance is leveraging a newly secured $100 million warehouse credit facility to nearly double its lending footprint, company Vice President John Kitchens told Auto Finance News.   “We want to stay in the eastern portion of the U.S. for now,” Kitchens said. Specifically, the Clearwater, Fla.-based lender is eyeing Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania […]

• Nicole Casperson
• August 22, 2019
• Exclusive, Operations

NJ AG steps up auto enforcement

The New Jersey Attorney General’s office has reached settlements with two dealership groups engaged in alleged consumer fraud, according to an announcement. Auto Mall 46, which does business under 10 dealership names, agreed to pay $219,927 in civil penalties for altering the price on sales and lease documents to an amount other than what was […]

• Joey Pizzolato
• August 22, 2019
• Compliance & Regulation, Risk Management

GM Financial eyes AI for remarketing

GM Financial is leveraging artificial learning and advanced analytics to price off-lease inventory and optimize dealers' ability to sell those vehicles, Executive Vice President of Customer Experience Bob Beatty told Auto Finance News. Some of the questions GM Financial is tackling are: “What inventory should they buy and how much should they sell it for? […]

• Bianca Chan
• August 22, 2019
• Customer Experience, Exclusive, Innovation & Technology, Sales & Marketing

PenFed scales back balloon financing rollout

A residual based financing program that was anticipated to boost Pentagon Federal Credit Union’s balloon financing volume tenfold is ramping up slower than originally planned. “Maybe we overestimated a little bit what market acceptance would look like right away,” said Ivan McBride, PenFed's vice president of automotive lending products and sales. “It hasn’t ramped up […]

• Bianca Chan
• August 21, 2019
• Customer Experience, Exclusive, Sales & Marketing

Ally Financial scores investment-grade rating

Ally Financial’s long-term default rating has reached investment-grade status after an upgrade by Fitch Ratings, thanks to a boost in profitability stemming from increased used-car originations. The upgrade is a plus for Ally since investment-grade paper is typically in higher demand by investors, Michael Taiano, senior director of the Financial Institutions Group at Fitch Ratings, […]

• Nicole Casperson
• August 21, 2019
• Archives, Credit Performance

AutoGravity increases lead generation, turns to AI

AutoGravity has expanded the number of avenues it uses to generate customer leads for auto dealers, Chuck Schofield, vice president of sales and dealer services, told Auto Finance News. AutoGravity’s platform allows consumers to perform inventory and financing research online before going to a dealership. With these new enhancements, dealer partners receive CRM notifications when […]

• Joey Pizzolato
• August 21, 2019
• Innovation & Technology, Sales & Marketing

Indiana CU rolls out e-contracting to increase marketshare

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, […]

• Nicole Casperson
• August 20, 2019
• Exclusive, Innovation & Technology, Sales & Marketing

Financial institutions drop the ball on diversity

Megabanks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, are still lagging when it comes to diversity and inclusion, the House Financial Services Committee found. An analysis of diversity data from 2015 to the present provided by the nation’s eight largest banks found that although the financial institutions are making progress, “there is still much to do,” the committee […]

• Joey Pizzolato
• August 20, 2019
• Auto Finance Excellence, People