McLEAN, Va. — By integrating all subsidiaries into One Program, Ryan Schneider, president of Capital One Auto Finance, said his company now auto approves 98 percent of all auto loans, with an average decision time of less than 45 seconds.

"The One Program has been a long time coming," Schneider told SubPrime Auto Finance News. "The program has been designed with input from our dealer customers and through the hard work of the majority of associates here at Capital One Auto Finance — who I commend for their tireless hours and hard work to make this program a reality.

"I really believe we have designed a program that will service the full credit spectrum and help us become the dealer's primary lender of choice," he continued. "I am excited to now be a part of this great team."

Discussing another benefit of the new One Program, Schneider told SubPrime Auto Finance News that before the integration of Capital One Auto Finance's subsidiaries was complete, median funding time was nearly three days. Today, Schneider said it's down to one day.

"One of the things I'm really excited about with our full-spectrum program and our history as a player in the subprime part of the market, is that dealers will find that we continue to be a strong player in the subprime area, just as we continue to be very competitive in prime," he said.

"And, with our history in the subprime area, we're very well set up to succeed there. And the things we're doing to expand into prime can only help us going forward," Schneider explained. "Capital One's business model has proven to be successful thus far; however, we are always looking too improve our dealers' customer experience."

One of the ways Capital One Auto Finance has improved its services for dealers is through dedicated relationship managers and dedicated field representatives.

"One of the things we've seen with our One Program pilot was that dealerships have really found our dedicated manager relationships very helpful because they have the flexibility to make some changes," Schneider said.

"And if they need to change a stipulation to make it work for the right kind of customer, we absolutely have the flexibility to do that. But this is a new example of something in our dedicated dealer relationships that I'm excited about for dealers," he continued.

He went on to point out that the company's full-spectrum program has the ability to approve customer FICO scores from 500 to 850. To simplify the process for dealers, one application covers the entire credit spectrum, he noted.

"The largest differences are now fully leveraging the combined strengths of Capital One, Onyx Acceptance Corp, North Fork Bank and Hibernia Bank to offer an easy one application, fast auto financing solution to virtually every type of customer — super-prime, prime, near-prime and subprime," he said.

"Right now, I am focused on implementing the One Program and making Capital One Auto Finance the dealer's primary lender of choice," Schneider related.

According to the president, Capital One Auto Finance's new program is designed to help both franchised and independent dealers. He noted that the company has been expanding its involvement with the independent dealers of late.

While not giving specifics about the company's expansion of independent dealer relationships, he did say, "We are absolutely trying to focus on both franchise and independent dealers with a true full-credit spectrum financing program — one that really addresses a full spectrum."

"As part of our integration with Onyx, we have leveraged its strong independent dealer base to jumpstart our efforts in the space," he explained.

Additionally, he told SubPrime Auto Finance News, "As you can probably imagine, we are very excited to continue to position ourselves as an industry leader and as one of the nation's largest independent auto lenders (third non-captive) with relationships with more than 18,000 franchise and independent auto dealers."

Direct-to-Consumer Programs

As of late June, Capital One Auto Finance's direct-to-consumer buying program is now located at www.capitaloneautobuying.com, Schneider said. Formerly, it was located under the Web site address www.driveone.com.

"The Blank Check and the Capital One Auto Buying program helps bring ready-to-buy consumers to dealerships and helps bring dealers incremental sales to their business," he highlighted.

"Additionally, participating dealers benefit from Capital One Auto Buying program because it is a turnkey approach for dealers to sell vehicles to consumers ready to purchase vehicles," he continued. "Each participating dealer may also save resources and move cars faster."

New Auto Finance Offices

Briefly discussing the company's new auto finance and banking offices in Plano, Texas, Schneider said, "The new facility creates a campus environment for multiple Capital One businesses in a desirable market, provides more room to grow, improves efficiencies and supports its dynamic team culture.

"We will be moving 1,000 associates to the new facilities beginning in the first quarter of 2008 from existing sites," he added.

Schneider said the company is "very proud" it was recently named one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For by Fortune Magazine. In fact, he pointed out that Capital One Auto Finance was named one of the 30 Best Places to Work For in Oklahoma.

About the New Capital One Auto Finance President

Sharing a bit about himself, Schneider said he joined Capital One in January 2002 from McKinsey & Co., where he was a partner who worked with financial services firms in the areas of customer credit, insurance and private equity.

"Before joining Capital One Auto Finance, I served as executive vice president in Capital One's U.S. card business," Schneider said. "I led our up-market (prime) line of business and focused on customer acquisition and customer management strategies.

"My team marketed to and serviced domestic credit card customers with higher-than-average credit scores, while producing profitability significantly above historical levels," he noted.

For More Information

Dealers interested in learning more about Capital One Auto Finance or developing a relationship can visit www.800Carfund.com, call (888) 396-COAF (2623), or talk to their Capital One sales representative.