HOW WE’RE DRIVING FORWARD INNOVATION AND SUCCESS IN MOTOR FINANCE
2023-06-23 12:05:28.0
Since launching in 2018, our motor finance solutions have been essential to BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK’s commitment to providing our customers with the best financial solutions possible.
In addition to expanding our offering to the leisure market by providing finance for motorhomes and campervans in 2021, our motor finance team has strengthened its partnerships and maintained profitability despite challenges in the wider financial sector. The team has also announced the launch of soft search.
To top off this year of success, the motor finance team was recently shortlisted for four categories at the Credit Strategy Car Finance Awards and were delighted that Ashley Plumb, Team Manager Motor Finance, won the Rising Star Award in recognition of his hard work and dedication to the industry over the past year.
We sat down with Motor Sales Director, Robert Hutchinson, and Managing Director of motor finance, Andrew Brameld, to find out more about soft search and how it helps to transform the customer experience. Plus, how the team hopes to build upon their current track record of success.
Introducing soft search in motor finance
Robert shared: “At BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK, we have designed our motor finance solutions to help consumers purchase the vehicle of their choice in an affordable way by providing responsible finance solutions, which also enables our partners to grow.
“To further enhance our responsible finance solutions, we recently introduced soft search for customers looking to finance their next vehicle purchase — making BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK one of the first prime lenders to offer this service.
“Our soft search capability will allow consumers to enquire about our finance solutions for their upcoming vehicle purchase, without impacting their credit score. This helps consumers maintain a strong track record which will help them when requesting a loan in the future.
“In addition to protecting customer interests, this capability will also enable us to move into different markets which we have already started exploring. It’s a very exciting time for the motor finance team at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK.”
The successful implementation of soft search at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK is well-timed with the Financial Conduct Authority’s upcoming introduction of Consumer Duty in July 2023.
Consumer Duty
Consumer Duty requires any financial services company to deliver good outcomes for their retail customers. The FCA has set higher standards of consumer protection this year to ensure customer needs are put first.
Robert said: “As an organisation, we’ve always placed our customers at the heart of what we do. We endeavour to provide customers with a service that meets their needs whilst serving their best interests.
“By bringing soft search into our motor finance offering and working with our partners to implement this, we will continue to make sure that customers get the best outcome possible.”
Looking ahead
The implementation of soft search is just one of the many initiatives being accelerated to enhance the customer experience in motor finance at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK.
Speaking about the future, Andrew Brameld, Managing Director of Motor Finance at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK added: “We have made significant headway over the last year which has enabled us to really demonstrate the scalability of our motor finance offering.
“As a global organisation, we are committed to developing our offering to ensure that the customer experience is constantly improving and that ours are the best solutions on the market.
“The UK Motor market is going through the largest scale of change in over 30 years and as the cars, markets and OEMs evolve we will continue to use our global expertise to be at the forefront of developing products for our changing customers always through our partner focus
“We have also been able to develop stronger relationships with our customers who have faith in us as a responsible lender.
“To hear that we were shortlisted for four categories for the Car Finance Award was the cherry on top of a great year — particularly for the Rising Star Award which our colleague Ashley won.
“This demonstrates that we are on the right track with our solutions and also provides a platform for us to encourage our rising stars within the motor finance team, which is a key aspect of our commitments as a Top Employer.”
Find out more about our motor finance solutions here and stay up to date with the latest news at BNP Paribas Personal Finance UK via Twitter and LinkedIn.