Car finance gets automated upgrade

Online credit decisions in automated car finance could be made in under 10 seconds, following the introduction of a new system by Specialist Motor Finance.

The company has partnered with LendingMetrics, the auto-decision software specialist, to launch a new customer application platform which delivers ultra-fast decisions

SMF managing director David Challinor says the system aims to allow brokers to reach out to a wider sector of borrowers whilst still ensuring that customer affordability is key:

He said, ‘Many brokers now require a sub-ten second response from their panels of lenders, and an easy way to achieve this is to guess affordability from an historic credit score. However, this doesn’t distinguish between people suffering from chronic financial difficulties, and others who have overcome past problems, hold a regular job, and carry no great burden of debt.

‘In conjunction with LendingMetrics, we can now much more readily identify such applicants, based on our own unique profiling systems and current national statistical data.

‘Crucially, the tool allows SMF to make a decision based on how an applicant is likely to conduct themselves in the future, rather than on what has happened in their past. The process takes just seconds, but delivers a much fairer outcome.’

David Wylie, MD of LendingMetrics, believes the new platform being used by SMF is delivering a ground-breaking approach to automated car finance decisioning, ‘The system is the result of a 12-month working partnership between our companies to create a highly detailed and real-time picture of applicants.

‘SMF is now able to provide a secure and scalable technology solution through its brokers which allows them to help more customers than ever before.’