WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Stephen Bentley, chief executive officer, chairman and founder of Aimbridge Lending Solutions, knows the stakes are very high for credit unions fearful of losing auto market share, so he's making an in-person tour to discuss growth opportunities available for credit unions.

Automotive sales dropped 3% in 2006–the worst decline in eight years–and 2007 is expected to be even worse, said Bentley. Franchise and dealer sales have also been on a downturn at 33% share of market each while casual vehicle sales (consumer to consumer) are the only segment of the business to increase to a hefty 34% and still growing. Auto loan growth rates are down and credit unions are only penetrating on average, 17% of their own member base, he said.

Aimbridge, a provider of multi-channel, multi-lender auto buying and lending services exclusively for credit unions wants to give CUs the tools necessary to stem that decline and further penetrate existing membership while offering superior service to members, said Bentley and David Lindsey, vice president of technology and product development during an in-person interview with Credit Union Times.

Aimbridge Lending Solutions has partnered with credit unions and automotive dealers to market auto loans and insurance products since 1984. The company hosts a single platform that offers credit unions direct, indirect and Web-based lending solutions. Located in Englewood, Colo., Aimbridge also has remote offices throughout the country (www.aimbridge.com). Bentley, who led the growth of Aimbridge Automotive Group, the company's direct lending division, said, “indirect lending isn't the way members want to shop anymore. Eighty percent of people look online before ever thinking of walking onto an auto dealer's lot.” Despite that trend, Aimbridge Indirect Lending, another division of the company, has grown to be the second largest credit union-focused indirect lending company in the country and has 2,500 dealers in its national indirect network. The Aimbridge Automotive Group is now one of the top 350 automobile dealerships in the country, according to company-provided information.

Today, Aimbridge works in 18 markets, which includes Ohio (a joint venture with the Ohio Credit Union League), Florida (five primary areas: Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Daytona), Maryland (Baltimore area), Virginia (Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.), Georgia (Atlanta area), Michigan (Detroit and western slope), Illinois (Chicago and Southern Illinois), Missouri, Colorado and Texas, (Dallas/Ft. Worth). Aimbridge also works with CUSOs in Illinois, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia to enable smaller credit unions to take advantage of its lending solutions.

Bentley's presentation here in Florida was at First Choice Credit Union and Bentley said that it had been well received. (Bentley will visit with CU members of the Ohio CU League in early October in several locations (for locations and dates visit the company's Web site).

Bentley covers the strategic actions CUs should undertake including member base focused programs, controlling operating costs, quick turnaround times, using the Internet channel with the indirect channel, changing dealer relationships and leveraging technology. The Web offers convenience, lower costs and–if systems are properly designed–the promise of service that members will find valuable for saving time and making the work of choosing, researching, financing and delivery of a car or truck faster and simpler. The concept will work equally well for multi-billion-dollar CUs as it does for plain vanilla and small CUs, he noted. Bentley likened the process Aimbridge has created to a funnel into which the entire process of car buying was placed. He admires the Total Quality management principles of Dr. W. Edwards Deming and both he and Lindsey said they are “constantly looking at improving things to make them better.”

“There's been a structural change in the world in that the Net is now a sales channel. Product is being distributed without anyone even touching it and that is important for credit unions to understand,” said Bentley. Building a national program that incorporates all the functions of car buying/selling/financing (CU/dealer/buyer) and placing it on the Web will be the eventual fulfillment of the design Aimbridge is now working on. Members, for example, want to know about the car. Has it been inspected? Is it a lemon? The CU wants to capture the loan and the dealer wants to sell units.

The design will be debuted in stages, said Bentley. In November they will go live in Missouri, then Ohio with a distribution and aggregate system for specific dealers in a given market, said Bentley. “We aggregate the inventory from the DMS system (dealer inventory) then scrub it for updates. Then, we create a CU marketing plan (both digital and standard direct mail, newsletters, etc.). Links are placed on Web sites so that the member never has to leave the CU's site (except through links) to complete the purchase.

What it will do for credit unions may give them the boost in auto lending that will keep them in a leadership position for years to come, while other lenders (banks) play catch up. It will provide loan generation (through a link to CUs for pre-approvals) that will help give them a lift in existing membership penetration– that part has been functional at Automotive Avenues, the company's Colorado Dealership (see sidebar) for one year. The car buying service is also live there and will be expanded to other areas gradually, he said.

“The endgame is to have a POS (point of sale) concept that is national and entirely Web-based. It's the Automotive Avenues concept written large,” Bentley said. “This represents a substantial investment,” he noted. Lindsey said there were other benefits to the CU beyond just making loans (the transaction) and serving members well. “Once you capture all this data through the Web, it also means you can learn a lot more about members. The Web offers thorough tracking from first interest through final transactions. Right now, not many CUs have any knowledge of where their members are shopping for cars.

“This is exactly what the industry needs to do [utilize the Net] and we've built the infrastructure to do it. This isn't some vaporware,” said Bentley.

–[email protected]