Westlake Finalizes 2 Partnerships to Mitigate Risk
Westlake Financial Services announced two new partnerships in the past week that it claims will eliminate some risk in lending practices and help evaluate applicants with Fico credit scores below 600.
On Tuesday, the company announced an expansion of its cooperation with the credit reporting agency Clarity Services to add the product Clear Fraud, which is able to eliminate risk and more accurately price and structure deals with profitable parameters, according to the release.
Specifically, Westlake is able to more accurately determine what the down payment on a loan should be in order to maximize profitability. The lender began testing Clear Fraud in “select markets” a year ago and will now expand the program across its 50,000 new and used dealer partners in the U.S.
“During the testing period with Clear Fraud, we saw a measurable lift and clear separation of risk,” Ian Anderson, group president of Westlake Financial, said in the release. “Using an actionable Fair Credit Reporting Act report that includes detailed reason codes is critical, both from a compliance standpoint and for greater peace of mind that our decisions will maximize return on investment.”
The other partnership with Equifax eliminates risk at the dealership through a dealer intelligence platform called TradeSight, the lender announced in a press release last week.
TradeSight uses consumer credit information and dealer data from third-party data sources to help Westlake assess dealer performance and identify particularly risk-averse sites. Data is also compiled from other lenders on the platform to establish peer-based metrics for performance.
“Since TradeSight comes with detailed loan-level data and four years of history, Westlake was able to benchmark ourselves against our various competitors and adjust our go-to-market strategy as a result,” Anderson said. “This new product with help us drive well-informed business decisions and develop and adjust strategies so we can more accurately understand the performance and behavior of our dealership network.”
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