There’s a new player in the Canadian auto-lending market. Banco Santander, S.A. acquired Canadian based lender Carfinco in 2015. The global lending giant has spent the past six years working with Carfinco leaders to consolidate internal processes and upgrade their lending products, including full spectrum lending. Now, the entity is ready to re-launch as Santander Consumer, bringing one of the world’s biggest lending platforms to the Canadian market.
You may have heard of Santander. They have a broad worldwide reach. The Santander Group is one of the largest banks in the world by market capitalization, in operation since 1857. The brand has rocketed into the public eye in the last decade through high-profile sponsorships including the Formula 1 racing team, Scuderia Ferrari, and more recently the UEFA Champions League, one of the most prestigious and well-televised soccer leagues in the world, organized by the Union of European Football Associations. Presently Santander is premier sponsors for the CONMEBOL Libertadores, an annual international soccer competition that brings together the highest performing teams in South American club football.
Thanks to their aggressive growth and marketing savvy, Santander is now a household name across the globe. The consumer financing arm —Santander Consumer Finance— is a leading consumer finance company present in 16 European countries, China and Canada. They lead the auto finance market in all major European countries they service. Furthermore, Santander also counts with other consumer finance businesses in the US and Latin America.
Working with Santander offers dealerships and consumers a wide range of benefits. The extensive scope and reserves of Santander mean the consolidated entity can offer full-spectrum lending, including financing at competitive prime rates through to options for non-prime consumers.
What else can we all expect to see from Santander? The Santander Group has fostered a reputation for helping its partners and customers to truly thrive. The Santander Way, the bank’s values statement, professes a purpose to “help people and businesses prosper.” Santander Consumer Canada, in particular, has set itself apart from the competition by emphasizing tremendous customer and dealer service.
So how do they do it? Each arm of the organization, from senior leadership to dealer support, is directed to make everything they do “simple, personal, and fair,” with the goal of “earning the lasting loyalty of our people, customers, partners, shareholders and communities.”
As part of their dealer-first service delivery, Santander has invested considerably in streamlining internal processes. Their goal is to make the buying and application process as straightforward and user-friendly as possible, for consumers and dealers alike.
This means streamlined IT systems, with a single submission platform for all tiers of lending. All loans offer pre-approval, which is unique in the prime market, and they have reviewed funding requirements for all loans to ensure an easy, efficient path to funding for dealers and consumers. Hierarchy-free customer service gives dealers a direct line to the support they need, when they need it. With auto-decisioning, dealers can get responses to a significant portion of applications within seconds, and in many cases secure same-day funding. This means that dealers can get their customers funded and into a car quickly.
Backed by Santander’s massive financial footprint, they can also offer competitive incentive programs, to reward dealerships and salespeople for their loyalty. Watch for updates on the new Thrive Rewards platform available to dealers and their teams in Fall 2021.
These programs have helped Santander earn loyalty in each market the bank enters. Santander is known for best-in-class dealer and Automotive OEM satisfaction. This commitment to a positive dealer experience will build on the strong foundation of longstanding relationships that Santander Consumer has inherited from the Carfinco business.
Above all else, Santander is trusted. As a global entity, Santander Consumer Finance specializes in designing tailored solutions for both B2C and B2B customers. As a testament to the bank’s success in this area, Santander has established more than 115 tailor-made agreements at a country level with over 16 OEMs globally
“With Santander Consumer, our partners will be getting the best of both worlds,” says Galen Gower, Vice President of Business Development. “We’ve got the scope and reach of a major global bank with over a century and a half of history, paired with the personalized service of a small-town lender. We look forward to enhancing the relationship we have with our current dealer base as well as expanding our service delivery to new partners. We aim to keep all our interactions Simple, Personal and Fair and help our dealer partners, their personnel, and consumers thrive with these new program offerings in Canada.”
What can we expect to see from this new Canadian lender in the next few years? Santander Consumer will continue to operate out of Carfinco’s former offices in Edmonton, Alberta and Laval, Quebec. The organization has also applied for a Canadian banking license. When granted, Santander Consumer as a bank will be able to further expand its lending and financing services here, offering more pathways to help Canadians thrive.
