All articles by Fred Crawley
Fred Crawley
Round table: Reasons to be cheerful
Motor Finance brought together a number of experts to talk about the future of used car sales While all round table participants agreed there will be tough times ahead, most are confident it is a big enough market in which to survive.
Lombard VM closes, ALD named RBS fleet partner
Lombard Vehicle Management is to be wound down, with ALD Automotive announced as provider of contract hire and fleet management products for Lombard in future The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which categorised its fleet subsidiary as non-core in June 2009, will write no new fleet business under the LVM brand. A five-year agreement between RBS and ALD will see the French giant provide service to existing LVM customers until existing contracts to come to term within the next three years.
Editor’s letter: Two heads are better than one
Those of you with an interest in the classics (having watched 300 or Clash of the Titans counts) will know that January is named after Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions
Black Horse to shed 200 jobs
More than 200 of the 700 job cuts announced yesterday by Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) will come from the Cardiff offices of the groups asset finance division, Black Horse. Nevertheless, the sales operation of Black Horse Motor Finance is understood to have seen very little impact from the change, with no reduction in business to be expected as a result of the cuts Roles affected are within the back-office resource partially shared by Black Horse Consumer Finance (incorporating both Black Horse Motor Finance and Black Horse Personal Finance division, which began winding down in December 2010) and separate fleet business Lex Autolease.
Editor’s letter: Over the pond and back over here
Some or none of you may be keen to know how my recent trip to the US played out The answer is, very pleasantly, save for my habit of unnerving my wifes family by insisting that no one change channel or mute the TV when a car commercial was on. Conveniently just before I visited the States, the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas played host to the 2011 Auto Finance Summit, an industry conference presented by Motor Finances Stateside equivalent, Auto Finance News.
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Round Table: What can we learn from the US?
A special relationship: Motor Finance brought together a number of experts to talk about the differences between US and UK car finance, namely advertising, generating leads and compliance
Editor’s Letter: Finance First!
While I will generally be trying to take the opportunity not to think about car finance for a couple of weeks, I have to say I will be keeping my eye on the TV ads (not a hard thing to do in such a commercially drenched broadcast culture) to witness the art of US auto finance commercials. While much dealer and manufacturer advertising in this country makes mention of headline offers from captives, and billboard ads increasingly quote prices per month rather than in full, it would be a rare thing indeed to see a television or radio ad entirely devoted to the offerings of an independent finance house.
Must-attend F&I event
Despite only being in its second year, the annual F&I conference and awards dinner held by Frontline Solutions has carved a place as a must-attend event in the UK car finance calendar.
Compliance round table: when do we get an adequate explanation?
This month, Motor Finance took the occasion of the Frontline Solutions F&I conference as a perfect opportunity to host its eighth round table, focused on the costs associated with the activities of claims management companies, and the impact they have on those at the sharp end of regulation and compliance.
Major lender dips toe into market through brokers
A significant player in the world of asset finance has begun writing a modest amount of consumer motor finance business, with a view to assessing a fully fledged market entry next year. At present the finance company, which is not owned by a bank and which has an eye on the prime end of the market, has got to the stage of developing its IT infrastructure to accept consumer motor finance, and is writing a small stream of deals introduced through a single broker.