ATLANTA and HOUSTON -

CRIF Select recently finalized relationships with Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) and Auto Financial Group (AFG).

CRIF Select reached an agreement for an exclusive indirect financing partnership with PenFed Credit Union, which is headquartered in Tysons, Va., with more than $26 billion in assets and serves more than 2 million members in locations throughout the United States Puerto Rico, Guam and in Okinawa, Japan.

“Partnering with CRIF Select will help us expand our market footprint and reach new auto lending levels in 2020 and beyond,” said Ivan McBride, director of automotive lending at PenFed Credit Union.

“We are thrilled to partner with CRIF Select and their amazing team in order to reach our goals,” McBride continued. “We are immediately entering 10 new states and continue to work towards offering PenFed auto financing in all 50 states.”

According to a news release, one of the main reasons that PenFed Credit Union chose to partner with CRIF Select is due to its document automation and paperless processing abilities.

CRIF Select’s document automation can allow PenFed to work with dealerships in a digital environment to collect and audit all contract and funding package documentation. 

“CRIF is a global leader in digitalization, and we are proud to be innovative and continue to improve the user experience with this platform,” CRIF Select chairman Larry Howell said.

CRIF Select president Jeremy Engbrecht added, “Partnering with PenFed Credit Union is a tremendous opportunity to showcase the benefits of an outsourced indirect lending solution like Select Complete,”

“PenFed Credit Union has started a great program, and we are confident that we can help open doors to them for further growth opportunities and increased efficiency,” Engbrecht said.

Another major benefit for PenFed Credit Union is that the company now can utilize CRIF Select’s connectivity to portals such as Dealertrack and RouteOne, as these are vital to any indirect lending program’s success. 

“Partnering with industry leaders, such as CRIF Select, is part of Dealertrack’s longstanding and ongoing commitment to help dealers and credit unions transform their businesses and grow their indirect automotive lending opportunities,” said Cheryl Miller, vice president of operations for F&I solutions at Cox Automotive.

RouteOne senior vice president, business development Jeff Belanger added, “RouteOne is excited to welcome PenFed to our credit platform.

“Our longstanding integration with CRIF Select is now enhanced with PenFed Credit Union, further expanding RouteOne’s robust offering to our dealer base.  We believe in supporting dealer choice in everything they do, and the addition of PenFed is another extension of that philosophy,” Belanger went on to say.

Meanwhile through its other new relationship, CRIF Select will now offer AFG’s walk-away balloon and leasing programs through its 5,000 dealers and more than 140 financing partners.

“We are excited to partner with CRIF select, which will allow us to meet the growing demand for residual-based financing products by bringing our programs to even more consumers through CRIF’s extensive dealer and lender network,” AFG chief executive officer Richard Epley said.

Engbrecht said, “We are excited about this new partnership with AFG in order to add value to both our lender and dealer partners. AFG understands their space very well and is very client-centric, which makes us like-minded partners.”