Record of business underwritten is the first phase of
transparency push.
Car finance provider Marsh Finance has taken a bold move against
the ‘smoke and mirrors’ of the sector by keeping a public running
total of the amount of business the company has underwritten for
the year-to-date on its website marshfinance.co.uk.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Marsh launched its new-look website
on Monday 6 February with the total of underwritten business
standing at over £100m.
By Friday 10 February, the total
had exceeded £115m (see chart, right). As Motor
Finance went to press the total stood at £125.4m.
Adapting and expanding the USP of
high-profile personal loan providers to the motor finance market,
Marsh’s new portal also includes a series of sliding gauges for
potential customers or dealers.
The gauges measure the amount of
money required, credit risk and the length of loan to calculate
payments, interest, fees and charges for any amount of money
borrowed and the likelihood of being approved for credit.
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By GlobalData
According to national business
development manager Craig Rutherford, both innovations are “another
indication of how serious we are about lending in the near-prime
market”.
The innovations are also,
Rutherford added, a reaction to “the love of ‘smoke and mirrors’ in
the industry”.
With many lenders reticent to
reveal how much money they are supplying or provide a tool to
manage customer expectations before they reach a showroom, Marsh
appears to be putting itself at a disadvantage.
Rutherford sees only the potential
of helping dealers in the grey area of near-prime.
“We feel there is a large gap in
the motor finance lending market between prime and non-prime
lending scorecards,” he said.
“Often, the gap between these
scorecards is so wide that dealers are unable to proceed with
borderline applications because of the restrictions lenders put on
the deals – the advance, the term or the interest rate.
“We aim to provide the dealer with
a sensible, and workable, solution to the problem.
“Dealers primarily buy service from
their lending partners over negligible differences in the actual
acceptance rates and commissions.”
Rutherford says the two online
tools will be added to throughout the year and will stake the place
of the company in a cynical market.
“Let’s be fair, virtually all the
prime lenders are after the same customers on, more or less, the
same rate and terms,” he said.
“The website forms the first phase
in our larger, planned solution to make motor finance a more
transparent and easier-accessed product in the future.”
For both Rutherford and Marsh,
which is also celebrating passing the £100m mark for the company’s
portfolio management business, the changes are as much about
simplicity as pioneering.
“We did hope the scorecard aspect
of the website would be of interest – we would use this information
to prep our dealer partners,” Rutherford said.
“If the dealer doesn’t sell a car, we certainly won’t sell any
finance.”
