A Game-Changing Auto Finance Strategy for Your Dealer Clients

Attorneys, since the owners of dealerships rely on you for important and beneficial advice, I believe that you will find the following article to be a topic that you’ll want to share with your dealer clients. The Agora Data blueprint is designed to facilitate a dealership to become their own auto finance company. The appeal is straightforward and requires no additional capital, staffing, computer hardware/software and minimal training of their F&I staff! Becoming a dealer-owned finance company is a superior way to build dealer family wealth or accumulate additional capital for any purpose, such as expansion, acquisition of real estate, or simply building the dealer’s estate.

Agora Data, Inc. is a FinTech founded in 2017 that has brought together several highly experienced leaders from the subprime auto finance arena and a group of highly qualified IT leaders that are dedicated to the auto finance industry. The level of expertise, analytical skills, and funding available are unmatched, making Agora unique in the marketplace.

Agora is not a direct-to-consumer provider, but rather a source of capital and technology for dealerships and finance companies seeking capital for growth, working capital, and portfolio support. Each of these capital-intensive areas are supported by offering asset-backed loans to dealerships looking to establish their own finance companies seeking to grow their loan portfolios.

Traditionally, banks have been the major source of lines-of-credit for auto finance efforts for both finance companies and dealerships holding their loan portfolios. Recently, many large regional and community banks have exited this space, driven by alternative lending opportunities and increasing regulatory pressure. Fortunately, Agora Data has stepped into the void with favorable terms and lines of credit as large as $250 million.

New car dealerships also operate significant used car divisions alongside their operations in addition to the new car sales and marketing efforts. These dealerships present an inventory of pre-owned vehicles that are typically less than five model years old, certified to have been refurbished and are delivered to the consumer with warranties similar to new vehicles. The source of the inventory is from trade-ins, off-lease vehicles, and careful selection of vehicles from wholesale auctions. The dealerships also have an array of financing options available and arrange the financing for a substantial percentage of the sales.

Independent Used Car dealerships are also a significant source of used cars that obtain their inventory from trade-ins and auction sources. In many cases, the vehicles being offered are equal in quality and characteristics to the used cars offered by new car dealerships. These used car dealerships provide similar financing options to their customers but may lack access to captive finance companies since they do not hold factory franchises. Independent dealerships do have banks, credit unions, and independent auto finance companies available for their customers that offer competitive interest rates and payments.

In both scenarios, the finance contracts (Retail Installment Sales Agreements – RISCs) are sold to an outside finance source. Following contract submissions through portals such as DealerTrack and RouteOne, the consumer applications are sent by dealers to off-site finance sources, underwritten, and the RISCs that are accepted are funded to the dealerships at an agreed upon percentage of the Amount Financed. When that transaction is completed, the consumer is notified by the finance company that purchased the RISC and instructed on where payments should be made. Absent an irregularity such as fraud, these RISCs are non-recourse to the dealership with no further responsibility for the consumer’s payment performance.

The typical price paid by the finance company ranges from 80% to 105% of the Amount Financed. The percentage offered is determined by several factors with the primary risk factors being the consumer’s credit rating and the vehicle. Assuming that the RISC is for a consumer with a subprime credit rating, the amount paid for the RISC might be 85% of the Amount Financed to the dealership.

If the dealership, either new or used cars, worked with Agora Data setting up its own finance company, the results would be significantly different with the additional loan profit.

Here’s a simple example of the calculations to demonstrate the profits a dealership could realize being their own finance company.