Integrated Lending Technologies L.L.C.

Most lenders doing indirect lending do business with at least some independent dealers. If you develop a specific and detailed policy and follow it, doing business with independents makes good sense. The most common concerns are:

• Does the dealer have the financial strength to weather economic downturns?
• What recourse do I have if I don’t get the title?
• Are the dealership employees properly trained?
• Will I get complete and accurate loan documents?

If you do business only with franchise dealers, consider the following:

• Having a franchise from a manufacturer does not guaranty a dealer’s financial strength or that the dealer will stay in business.
• Independent dealers vary dramatically in size and financial strength just like franchise dealers.
• Some independents have excellent technological infrastructure and well trained management and finance professionals. Some definitely do not.
• New developments can practically eliminate the risks of not getting a perfected lien from an independent dealer.

If your indirect program isn’t available in independent dealerships, it isn’t available to buyers of almost half of all used vehicles. What do you think? Should you be doing business with independents? Are the problems or risks exaggerated? Have you done enough research on ways to reduce the risks?

The percentage of automobile and other equipment loans booked through the indirect lending process continues to increase, and the number of lenders doing indirect continues to grow.  More people than ever are looking for information about it. We here at Integrated Lending Technologies are providing this weblog as a forum for anyone interested to share his or her thoughts and ideas about indirect lending.  We’ll regularly post our observations about issues and developments related to indirect lending and open it up for discussion. We won’t use it to tout our own products, but we may mention some technological features that we develop if we think they’ll be of interest generally. Anyone can log in and post whatever they like. Our goal is to get people talking and sharing. Let others know what works for you or what has caused you problems. Ask questions. Someone else will have the answer. Share opinions. And we promise to not let this blog get stale. If we think things are moving too slowly, we’ll spice it up a little with some of our own opinions, and we’ve got some pretty strong ones. So, check back often.