LOS ANGELES -

Westlake Financial Services says its maintaining its strong relationships with independent dealers while reporting significant growth sprouting from its program for franchised stores.

Company officials highlighted that Westlake's growth produced an 84-percent increase in franchise deals and an 80-percent jump in franchise dealership partners from fourth quarter of 2012 to Q4 of last year.

"Since the unveiling of our new franchise product, we have seen an upsurge in the number of franchise dealer partners utilizing our programs," Westlake senior vice president of sales Mark Vazquez said.

"We have upgraded the program and now offer longer terms, lower fees, and more backend advances while maintaining key performance indicators inline," Vazquez continued. "These modifications will benefit both our dealership partners and the customers they serve."

Last June, Westlake Financial launched a new program designed to better service franchised dealerships.

To benefit the franchised stores, Westlake now can offer easier access to the program, faster decisioning, lower discounts and more competitive approvals.

Westlake vice president of sales and marketing Kyle Dietrich insisted franchised dealers can easily access additional approvals in less than three minutes.

"At Westlake we strive to be innovative and look to the dealerships feedback to improve their experiences," Dietrich said.

"To better service our customers, we revamped our marketing and delivered a product that has been well received by franchise dealerships. With these improvements, we have seen impressive results," he added.

Westlake Financial Services can give dealers full control of their deals with automated, instant approvals and the ability to instantaneously rework their deals for a better approval.

Furthermore, Westlake's automated decisioning system can provide dealers with an approval in as little as 30 seconds. Dealers can also fully control of their approvals by instantaneously reworking their deals for more profit on every deal.

For more information about Westlake Financial Services, visit www.WestlakeFinancial.com.

Wilshire Consumer Credit Teams Up With MoneyGram

In other company news, Wilshire Consumer Credit — a wholly owned subsidiary of Westlake Financial Services — recently partnered with MoneyGram to enable WCC customers the ability to access money at any MoneyGram location.

Wilshire Consumer Credit operates as 1800CarTitle and INeedCashNow.net.

Officials highlighted Wilshire Consumer Credit's partnership with MoneyGram allows their customers to have more convenient access to receive their funds quicker than previously available.

The company pointed out MoneyGram is the second-largest money transfer company in the world with 293,000 agent locations, according to its website.

Wilshire Consumer Credit customers can now retrieve their funds from any of the MoneyGram locations, including hundreds of locations located inside Walmart.

Wilshire Consumer Credit customers still can receive their loan funds through direct deposit, in-person or a mailed check.

"Providing great customer experience is always top priority at Wilshire Consumer Credit," Wilshire Consumer Credit vice president Jim Eyraud said.

"MoneyGram's thousands of convenient locations will make it even easier for our customers to get the cash they need," Eyraud continued.

Wilshire Consumer Credit offers car title loans to customers throughout Arizona, California, Georgia, Missouri, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Utah.  Unsecured loans are also offered to residents of California.

For information on Wilshire Consumer Credit, visit www.1800CarTitleLoan.com and www.INeedCashNow.net.  To find out more information on MoneyGram, visit www.MoneyGram.com.