Los Angeles, CALIFORNIA – February 7, 2008 – Westlake Financial Services announces the launch of its newly redesigned website to coincide with the NADA Convention in San Francisco, California, February 9 -12. It marks the first time Westlake will exhibit at the long-running convention, and the first major redesign of its website in almost four years.

“The primary goal was to have a simple clean approach that was easy to navigate and understand in order to provide the best level of service for our customers,” explained Rich Damschen, Marketing Analytics and Business Strategy Manager, “Whether they are dealers or currently have loans with us, they have uniquely different needs. By identifying their needs we were able to guide them through an optimized path to better serve them.”

He goes on to say that there was a major change to a “customer-focused” approach to navigation, making it easier to achieve “what you needed to do, based on who you are. For a visiting dealer this could be getting general information to become a partner with us. For our current dealer partners, this is showing our other products and offerings as well as highlighting our technological advancements. Customers with Westlake loans have two distinct paths: self service or a direct line to customer service to address special needs and field questions.

“We met with the various business units to determine the needs and how to best serve our customers. Once we had the requirements we met with our programming and design teams. By incorporating so many talented individuals in the process we were able to quickly turn around the desired results,” Rich said.

Future website plans in the coming weeks and months include a Spanish version of the site, direct integration with Westlake’s CRM platform, and live online chat for customer service.

Westlake’s first-ever exhibition at the NADA Convention & Expo was the impetus for the website redesign. Westlake’s attendance highlighted the company’s evolving and expanding position into the franchise arena. “We have helped many independent dealerships grow over the years,” Rich explained, “and this is a logical step in maintaining our relationships with our dealer base. We will continue to focus on the needs of our dealers.”

To learn more about Westlake Financial, including markets served and financing products available, visit www.westlakefinancial.com.

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