BATON ROUGE, La. — Wolters Kluwer Financial Services announced Wednesday that Credit Union Acceptance Co., a credit union service organization that represents 130 credit unions in the indirect auto finance market, has joined its AppOne credit union platform.

Using the AppOne platform, CUAC can enable participating credit unions to originate auto loans from the company's network of dealers while helping to minimize risk, comply with applicable law and reduce overall lender operational costs, officials indicated.

In April, the number of independent dealerships rose for the first time since 2006, according to CNW Research. The firm attributes the increase to growing strength in the used-car market and layoffs at franchised dealerships.

Independent dealers are focused on maintaining positive relationships with lenders as they continue to look for ways to build their business, executives noted.

"Sometimes there is a misconception that independent auto dealers are only looking for subprime lenders," said Lee Domingue, chief executive officer of indirect lending at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services.

"But many prime customers are buying used vehicles, particularly in the current marketplace. Working with CUAC, we help our dealer customers connect with more credit union lending sources," he continued.

Kurt Howard, executive vice president at CUAC, added, "Not only does AppOne help CUAC's participating credit unions build a new growth channel with independent dealers, but it also helps mitigate the compliance and operational risks credit unions face every day. AppOne's platform simplifies the auto lending process from start to finish, which ultimately benefits our credit unions' business."