Auto lenders like CIBC get close to dealers to ensure their programs keep evolving with the times
With so much uncertainty in the economy and the auto industry, the lenders that serve dealerships are having to adapt and pivot with the trends impacting car buyers.
“In the past two years, we’ve really put a big focus on ‘who is our customer?’ We have two key customers we have to continuously meet the needs of: the auto loan client and all of our partnered dealerships.” said Jaylyn Grant, Vice President of Sales, CIBC Auto Finance in an interview with Canadian auto dealer.
Grant said her team meets regularly to stay in touch with industry trends impacting dealers and try to understand where the consumers are in their buying sentiment. Even with the current turbulence, Grant said people will continue to need to purchase and replace vehicles. “It’s a very resilient industry. People need vehicles,” she said.
One area the bank continues to work on is providing faster decisions. “Dealers do want speed of service,” she said. “We want to give the dealer ease so we need to have efficient turnaround times, which means automation on the right approvals,” she said.
“That’s what it really comes down to,” she said. “It’s not just necessarily getting them the lowest rate, but what we can provide that delivers added value to the dealer.” — Jaylyn Grant, Vice President of Sales, CIBC Auto Finance
She said the bank is constantly adjusting their processes with automation to improve the approvals, though not every customer will qualify for that process.
That means also ensuring the bank is adequately staffed to manage fast manual approvals. “Our team has worked hard over the past two to three years to help ensure we have the right people available to facilitate and step in if we find that that turnaround time is increasing,” she said.
Speedy approvals are also balanced by the need for greater vigilance due to the increase in fraud. She said when dealers implement an ID verification system it helps with the validation and greatly reduces the chance of true name fraud. “We do our own checks and balances and if there’s anything that’s off, we go back to the dealers. I think everyone’s very aware and sensitive to it,” she said.
She said dealerships are also trying to give their own customers the best overall experience, so the question becomes how can CIBC facilitate that, in lockstep with the dealership. “That’s what we’ve been striving to do,” said Grant.
She said, for example, sometimes OEM captive lenders will cap their lowest rate on a 60-month term, but CIBC could consider a 72 or even 84 month term if that’s what the customer needed to make their payments work.
Grant said the bank has been focusing its efforts on ensuring the dealership has a great experience with CIBC outside of great offers. “That’s what it really comes down to,” she said. “It’s not just necessarily getting them the lowest rate, but what we can provide that delivers added value to the dealer.”
Part of that value for dealers consists of having an active sales team across Canada that is talking to dealers and helping better understand their lending needs. “Our team is on the road, they are in dealerships, they are at events. They are building partnerships and long-term friendships with these dealerships,” said Grant.
Grant said one of the bank’s strengths is their team’s depth of experience. “We are very fortunate in that regard, as 80% of our team has been with us since day one. I think that speaks volumes about the growth that CIBC has, and that we are growing year over year,” she said.
“We’ve worked hard at ensuring that we were focusing on the top priorities that were going to be meaningful and impactful to our dealerships and the overall end-to-end financing experience,” — Jaylyn Grant, Vice President of Sales, CIBC Auto Finance
Grant said her CIBC Auto Finance colleagues were pleased to finish in the top three in the most recent J.D. Power 2025 Canada Dealer Financing Satisfaction Study, non-captive prime segment. “We’re extremely happy about that. We’ve been fighting for a podium position since the day we came into the market 10 years ago,” she said.
“We’ve worked hard at ensuring that we were focusing on the top priorities that were going to be meaningful and impactful to our dealerships and the overall end-to-end financing experience,” she said.
For instance, with the announcement on July 3rd from the Quebec government about changes to their ZEV mandates, CIBC expects to see a slight shift to more hybrid vehicles being sold as Quebec will award half credits to OEMs for gasoline-hybrids under its revised ZEV mandate.
This topic has proven to be important to dealers and one innovative program that CIBC has been promoting to dealers is its Green Vehicle Program aimed at encouraging more widespread hybrid vehicle & EV adoption. “I think a lot more families, even if they are a two vehicle family, are looking at one of their vehicles being a hybrid, plug-in hybrid, electric vehicle or fuel cell vehicle for added fuel savings,” said Grant.
The program offers discounted financing rates on green vehicle purchases and the bank donates $25 to the Nature Conservancy of Canada for each eligible vehicle funded through the program.
CIBC is also the first of the big banks in Canada to partner with a residential EV charging station provider to offer a discount to its clients, and allow them to include an EV charging station in their auto loans.
