LOS ANGELES -

Westlake Financial Services shared its plans this week to expand its servicing team at the WFS Production Center in Dallas. Since its inception back in January, the company highlighted this facility has increased support for Westlake’s dealer partners, providing them with improved servicing.

To keep the momentum going, Westlake intends to hire 85 employees by the middle of next year. Executive explained the recruitment and training of new hires is scheduled to begin at the end of September. Once training is complete, employees will begin servicing accounts by mid-October.

“The Dallas location will employ experienced service personnel who will work in conjunction with the servicing team at our U.S. headquarters in southern California,” Westlake senior vice president of servicing Amit Shah said.

“Through our ongoing effort to provide the highest quality of service to our customers, we are expanding our team in Dallas to support sustainable growth and potentially double the size of our portfolio,” Shah continued.

Westlake Financial Services senior servicing manager Dewayne Couch touched on why this Texas market should provide the company with a bolstered workforce.

“We are excited to grow into the Dallas area,” Couch said. “The Dallas/Fort Worth metro area has a large network of talent that will offer superior customer service for our valued customers.”

The company went on to mention members of Westlake’s servicing team possess unique customer service skills and assist in providing service to customers and dealer partners. These team members are integral to Westlake’s success, as they are responsible for managing accounts and executing collections efforts.

“Our continued success is due to our employees,” said Ian Anderson, group president of Westlake Financial Holdings and last year’s winner of the SubPrime Auto Finance Executive of the Year Award.

“The strong performers we’re going to hire in Dallas will support an important component of our next phase of growth, which is building the Westlake presence in the central U.S.” Anderson continued.

Anderson also highlighted the contribution he expects the Dallas office to make to Westlake’s burgeoning third-party servicing business.

“We’ve achieved success as a third-party servicer with the $178 million Condor portfolio, and we’re confident that we can apply that model to successfully service other finance companies’ portfolios,” said Anderson, who will be back at this year’s SubPrime Forum at Used Car Week on Nov. 16-18 in Scottsdale, Ariz., to congratulate this year’s award winner and participate in the wide array of discussion set for the conference orchestrated in conjunction with the National Automotive Finance Association.

Also this month, Westlake said will begin the hiring process for experienced collectors.

Candidates with “purpose and passion for the automotive finance industry” are encouraged to apply through www.WestlakeFinancial.com.