Following the strategic partnership, Westlake Financial will leverage Pagaya’s relationships with asset managers and other partners to finance the auto loans.
Westlake Financial, an established automotive fintech company with over $24 billion in Assets Under Management (AUM), has announced a strategic partnership with Pagaya Technologies Ltd (NASDAQ: PGY), an Artificial Intelligence (AI) global company focused on the financial ecosystem, to further enrich the auto loan industry. According to the announcement, the partnership will focus on facilitating empowered credit decisions in a bid to elevate the vehicle purchase process. Furthermore, Westlake dealer partners can now seamlessly access Pagaya’s credit decisioning technology product.
“Pagaya’s credit scoring is very complementary to Westlake’s decisioning model,” Chris Urban, SVP of Risk for Westlake Financial, noted. “By utilizing both models we are able to return the most competitive approval to the dealers and fund more loans.”
Following the announcement, Pagaya’s PGY shares slightly gained during the after-hours session to trade around $2.14. The $1.6 billion valued company has seen its stock market gain about 71 percent YTD, but still down over 78 percent from last year’s peak.
What Next for Westlake Financial and Pagaya Technologies
The collaboration between Westlake Financial and Pagaya’s Technologies came at a time when other players in the same industry had begun to pull back. For instance, Capital One Financial Corp. and Citizens Financial Group have already left their auto loan business, hence paving the way for the future success of the collaboration between Westlake Financial and Pagaya’s Technologies.
“We’re excited to be leveraging Pagaya across more of our dealerships, optimizing the financing experience for car buyers,” said Don Hankey, Chairman of the Board of Hankey Group, the parent group of Westlake Financial. “Pagaya’s AI technology and two-sided lending network allow us to unlock new opportunities for our team and facilitate seamless transactions, ultimately helping our dealers sell more, and our customers get approved faster.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by Gal Krubiner, co-founder and CEO of Pagaya, who noted that dealerships will sell more cars and trucks through a competitive credit market. Moreover, the collaboration will be felt across the country with more auto dealerships, amounting to over 14k franchises.
The two companies have ostensibly been working together since 2021 through a pilot program that was never made public until now. The rise of artificial intelligence in most enterprises has undeniably helped companies that were on the brink of collapse remain afloat. Furthermore, artificial intelligence has significantly increased efficiency in most companies’ operations and optimized overall productivity.
The companies have come together to help car buyers access better auto loans with flexible terms at a time when the global economy is struggling with rising inflation among other uncertainties. As a result, their future growth prospects have significantly increased amid mainstream adoption of artificial intelligence.
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