White Clarke Group held its third successful Auto Captives Summit on the 25th January at The Shard, London. Senior executives from the world’s largest captive auto finance companies met to consider and debate the latest developments and the transforming landscape of FinTech in the auto finance industry.

The Auto Captives Summit 2018 provided delegates with real world examples for success in the transforming digital world of automotive finance. David Slider, Group EVP at White Clarke Group opened the day with a warm Texan welcome before setting the theme for the day by encouraging delegates to “Think Bigger” as we find ourselves living in a “world of wonder”. Other speakers for the day included:

• Royce Curtin, Managing Director of Global Intelligence at Barclays Bank, gave delegates an insight into Data Wars – How Barclays manages the threat from cyber-attacks. Before he joined Barclays, Curtin was Deputy Assistant Director of National Intelligence in Washington, and prior to that a special Agent at the FBI. Curtin has unique insight into a growing problem for all digital organizations;
• Toby Woolf, Big Data Automotive Leader at IBM, demonstrated with real life examples how their big data technology is delivering actionable insights to captive auto finance companies;
• Andy Hinrichs, CEO and Founder at AutoGravity, a true disrupter in the US auto finance market, briefed delegates on their auto finance mobile app that is revolutionizing how dealers and consumers engage during the shopping and financing process;
• Irfon Watkins, CEO at DOVU, explained how their new blockchain platform monetizes the flow of connected car data between the driver and the organizations who use it;
• David Betteley, Director at Marknad, spoke to delegates about the impact of digitalisation on the auto finance industry and how it is affecting customer expectations;
• Toby Kernon, CEO at Wagonex, shared his new fintech start-up strategy – one of the first in a growing number of simple, subscription based Cars-as-a-Service offerings, which threaten to replace contract hire and PCP by bundling all of the costs of car usage into one monthly payment.

Auto Captives Summit provided some great tips and practical advice on how best to respond to the ever-changing market and technology trends. This event was attended by senior industry executives from companies such as BMW Financial Services, Daimler Financial Services, FCA Automotive Services, Ford Credit, Opel Vauxhall Finance, Honda Finance, Hyundai Capital, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda Finance, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, PSA Finance, RCI Financial Services, Tesla Motors, Toyota Financial Services, Volkswagen Financial Services, and Volvo Financial Services.