BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Fiserv announced Tuesday that its Automotive Loan Origination System will integrate with Open Dealer Exchange.

The inclusion of Open Dealer Exchange in Fiserv's LOS is designed to give clients an extended range of alternatives for automating the exchange of credit and contract information, as well as new markets for dealers.

Open Dealer Exchange is a joint venture between dealer software providers Automatic Data Processing and Reynolds and Reynolds. It provides indirect auto finance sources the ability to improve origination and funding efficiencies in a dealer's transactional finance desktop, according to management.

"Open Dealer Exchange has made the line of communication between dealer and lender more instantaneous and easier to navigate," explained Pete Radike, product manager of origination and automotive solutions for Fiserv.

"By partnering with them, Fiserv is ensuring that our lending clients have a seamless automotive origination and funding experience," he added.

Open Dealer Exchange was created to address four key communication points within dealers' point-of-sale systems, including credit applications, contract data validation, e-contracting, as well as funding packet distribution.

By leveraging this technology, management claims Fiserv clients can achieve a more streamlined workflow as well as improvements through the automated exchange of an extended set of data. Specifically, this will give Fiserv Auto LOS clients:

—The ability to electronically process credit applications and send a decision back to the dealers in real time, expediting the credit decisioning process.

—The ability to send and receive real-time messages to enhance communication between the lender and dealer.

—The capability for a dealer to validate a contract to ensure it meets all legal and lender requirements before the contract is signed by the customer.

—The ability to send various contract statuses and validate contract content once a decisioned credit application is checked into funding, ensuring the deal structure matches the approved credit decision.

—Access to a nightly batch dealer feed is provided, so lenders can add or update dealer information.

"We know that streamlining the process between lender and dealer is key to enhancing the automotive finance process," pointed out Marty Zwolan, vice president of sales and marketing for Open Dealer Exchange. "This integration with Fiserv is just one more way we are making the process better for lenders and dealers."