ATLANTA — DealerTrack formed a partnership this week to provide lenders access to The Work Number, an automated solution for employment and income verification from Equifax.

Officials explained The Work Number will be integrated into the DealerTrack Digital Document Services platform, providing lenders the necessary tools to instantly verify employment and income on auto loan applicants. They contend The Work Number has proven to be a viable solution to verifying loan application information, providing lenders with rapid access to the most current verification of employment (VOE) and verification of income (VOI) database, as well as historical income verification.

The company pointed out the database includes more than 50 million current payroll records, updated each pay period to provide the most up-to-date information to lenders.

"In today's lending environment, employment and income are two of the most commonly falsified pieces of information on loan applications," stressed Janet Ford, senior vice president at The Work Number.

"For example, last year, 11 individuals were charged in a multimillion-dollar auto loan fraud scheme in Texas, where false income and employment information was provided to lenders by the dealership," Ford shared. As a result, 347 borrowers defaulted with more than $4 million in cash losses to the lending institutions.

"Through this partnership with DealerTrack, auto finance companies and lenders will be able to protect themselves from this fraud risk through access to immediate, verified employment and income information," she went on to say.

According to Kathy Kassinos, senior director of operations at DealerTrack Digital Document Services, "At DealerTrack, our goal is to provide high value solutions to the ever evolving automotive and related financial institutions.

"Given the pace of change our auto lending clients are experiencing, they are looking to DealerTrack to deliver innovative tools and services that drive efficiency and profitability across the entire lending life cycle," Kassinos asserted. "This partnership with The Work Number will build on our already successful eDocs offering, providing our lenders with a seamless process for early determination of risk while improving their operating margin through a variable cost model."

Finally, Dann Adams, president of The Work Number, chimed in stating, "January 2011 showed significant increases in U.S. auto sales — a strong indication that this year will be a good year for the auto finance industry. Equifax Credit Trends reports indicate a positive recovery for the auto industry — up 13 percent year-over-year in auto finance originations and pulling out from their low point in January 2010. Yet, new underwriting is closing at higher loan dollar amounts and to higher risk consumers, driving the need for greater transparency into the auto consumer's current financial situation.

"We embark on this partnership at a perfect time," Adams declared. "With a proven track record of contributing to the success of auto dealers, DealerTrack is an ideal partner for us. By offering an automated system to verify a borrower's financial information, lenders will benefit from increased accuracy, further resulting in fewer defaults.

"We look forward to this partnership and we're confident it will benefit the entire automotive industry as it continues to grow throughout 2011," Adams concluded.