Startup Bloom Pilots Blockchain Tech With Several Captives

SAN DIEGO — Bloom, a blockchain-enabled platform that allows customers to choose what personal data to share with lenders, is piloting its technology with several captives, Founder and Chief Executive Jesse Leimgruber told Auto Finance News at the Auto Finance Innovation Summit last week. Bloom was the winner of the event’s annual “DEMOvation Challenge.” At the heart of Bloom’s design is BloomID, […]

• Joey Pizzolato
• May 23, 2019
• Auto Finance Accelerate 2019, Innovation & Mobility, Technology

Sparking Connections: How Tech Alliances Are Firing Up Lenders

Slowing vehicle sales and the potential for a market downturn have lit a spark among lenders, technology companies, and OEMs, igniting partnerships aimed at gaining marketshare and creating solutions attainable only by way of collaboration. In January, Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG established an alliance that will likely spur the OEMs’ captives to collaborate […]

• Nicole Casperson and Joey Pizzolato
• May 22, 2019
• Features, Innovation & Mobility, Operations, Strategy, Technology

AI Startup Helps BMW Financial Scale Call Center With Chatbots

SAN DIEGO — BMW Financial Services will have automated “digital assistants” added to its call center capabilities by the third quarter, thanks to a partnership with startup CarLabs.AI, the tech company’s Chief Executive Martin Schmitt said at the Auto Finance Innovation Summit Wednesday. CarLabs is a company that delivers AI-powered digital assistants for automotive brands. It started […]

• Bianca Chan
• May 17, 2019
• Auto Finance Accelerate 2019, Innovation & Mobility, Operations, Sales & Marketing, Technology

CarLabs’ CEO Joins Auto Finance Innovation Summit for a Fireside Chat

Martin Schmitt, chief executive and co-founder of CarLabs Inc., will join Auto Finance News for a fireside chat at the Auto Finance Innovation Summit on Wednesday, May 15, at 9 a.m. to share insights and perspectives on artificial intelligence and other key innovation trends happening in the auto finance industry. The fourth annual Auto Finance […]

• Joey Pizzolato
• May 2, 2019
• Innovation & Mobility, Operations, Strategy, Technology

Hyundai Capital Launches AI-Powered Chatbot

Hyundai Capital America has adopted artificial intelligence into its Kia Motor Finance brand with the launch of “Kian,” an AI-powered chatbot that assists consumers with finance-specific questions, Martin Schmitt, chief executive at CarLabs, told AFN. The bot started “living” on Kia Motor Finance's website last month, Schmitt said, replacing the search bar and serving as […]

• Nicole Casperson
• May 1, 2019
• Innovation & Mobility, Operations, Strategy, Technology, Update

Cracking the Code: How to Manage Dealer Relations in the Digital Age

From the April issue: In auto finance, the lender-dealer relationship is one of symbiosis. Yet, in an age where technology is continually advancing, and financing is becoming faster, lenders and dealers agree that being mindful of and maintaining the human relationship is paramount to cultivating a prosperous partnership. Advances in technology — machine learning, artificial […]

• Nicole Casperson and Joey Pizzolato
• April 23, 2019
• Features, Operations, Strategy, Technology

BMW Financial to Explore Compliance Strategies at Auto Finance Risk Summit

BMW Financial Services’ compliance manager, Richard Corthell, has joined the speaker faculty at the Auto Finance Risk Summit to discuss the various ways lenders can establish an organizational structure that assigns compliance responsibility. Corthell takes the stage on Thursday, May 16 at 9:05 a.m. PT for a presentation where he’ll guide the audience through strategies […]

• Joey Pizzolato
• April 19, 2019
• Compliance

BMW Financial Ties Up Partnerships With Fintech Startups, CEO Says

BMW Financial Services is hammering out partnership details with a few of the six startups that participated in its “CollaborationLab” program late last year, President and Chief Executive Ian Smith told Auto Finance News. “We prioritized a couple of the partnerships, and those are in dialogue as we speak,” Smith said without specifying which had […]

• Nicole Casperson
• March 21, 2019
• Innovation & Mobility, Operations, Strategy, Technology, Update