Wilshire Consumer Credit Kicks Off 10 Year Anniversary
LOS ANGELES, California — August 31, 2011 – Title loan company Wilshire Consumer Credit celebrated its 10 Year Anniversary on August 29th. To mark the occasion, company officials recall how Wilshire Consumer Credit (WCC) got its start, review current financial performance, and announce a new consumer promotion to mark ten years in the industry.
Bernie Delaney, Vice President and General Manager of WCC, says the company got its start when executives at parent Westlake Financial Services saw a need in the market place. “Although Westlake is now a full-spectrum lender, they got their start specializing in sub-prime auto loans,” Mr. Delaney explained. “That experience made them realize that there is an unbanked segment of society that needed help getting money quickly, painlessly and confidentially. People needed cash and traditional banks would take too long or credit scores became issues. We wanted to find a way for people to use the equity in their vehicle to access the cash they needed quickly. Wilshire Consumer Credit was born out of that idea in 2001.
“Today we help people in all credit spectrums, including those with very high FICO scores that just can’t get cash from banks as quickly as they need it. A traditional bank can take eight days to fund a loan, we can do it in 80 minutes. It’s all about speed to funding,” he concludes.
Norma Lopez, Operations Manager, says the fragile economy has not slowed WCC’s growth. “In fact,” she says, “the weak economy probably helped the title loan industry as a whole. From small beginnings, our portfolio size has grown by tens of millions. Our annual growth rate has been about 40% year over year.” She adds that “often times we are the bridge that keeps people afloat between jobs.”
Looking to the future, National Sales Manager Bryan Gillooly says plans are underway to expand operations outside of current markets. “We currently serve customers in Arizona, California, Georgia, New Mexico, South Carolina and Texas,” he says. “In the coming months we hope to begin originations in Nevada, Ohio, Wisconsin and Utah.” In addition, WCC plans to strengthen business partnerships by offering title loans to more check-cashing and payday loan entities. “We believe an increase in product offerings will increase our partners’ profits,” Mr. Gillooly says. “We continually invite potential partners to contact us.”
Mr. Delaney concludes by saying, “We are proud to be the largest privately owned title loan company in the United States. We are able to provide our customers with the lowest rates in the industry because our backing comes from a privately owned billion-dollar company, not a hedge fund, which keeps our cost of funds low. In fact, we are running a promotion the next several months where qualifying customers can get title loans for as low as 29.9%, unheard of in the industry. We are here for the long haul and look forward to helping more customers and business partners with their financial needs.”
About Wilshire Consumer Credit: Wilshire Consumer Credit (WCC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Westlake Financial Services. WCC provides personal loans and title loan services to consumers both directly and through various business partners in Arizona, California, Georgia, New Mexico, South Carolina and Texas. All collections and servicing are performed in-house from its central facility located in the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles.
To learn more about Westlake Financial, including markets served and financing products available, visit www.westlakefinancial.com.