Challenge

American Credit Acceptance (ACA), based in Spartanburg, SC, is an indirect automotive lending institution providing financing to emerging credit consumers. ACA’s third party risk management program had limited staff resources and mostly manual processes.

“We had about 600 vendors being managed inside Excel and SharePoint which were not meeting our needs. It was extremely inefficient and cumbersome. We knew we had to figure out a way to automate our processes and get more lean.”

The team at ACA felt that a lot of their time was being spent on trying to keep up with due diligence requirements, and with a small dedicated team, were struggling to have enough time to focus on strategic decisions for business success.

“We were inundated trying to keep up. Reviewing documentation took a great deal of time away from where we felt we should be focusing on – moving the business forward.”

Solution

ACA chose to partner with Venminder for software that would give the capabilities to automate their program and add due diligence services that could help reduce the workload on their team. Venminder’s background in the financial industry was a key differentiator for ACA.

“Venminder’s background in the banking space was a big reason why we ultimately made our decision. Venminder understood the regulatory requirements. The Venminder system already had the features to meet all the regulations built in, like the ability to analyze inherent and residual risk, which meant we could get implementing and get up to speed quickly.”

Laura shared that she was finding the software user-friendly and helpful in streamlining their vendor management processes.

“I love the Venminder system. It’s very easy to use. One of the features I love most is the Vendor Scorecard on the Vendor Dashboard. It really allows me to have oversight on vendors, to see what people have done, to see how that vendor has fared in the last due diligence review, and to identify if any issues exist.”

When asked about Venminder’s due diligence services that can be delivered inside the software, Laura shared that the services are saving ACA a great deal of time and improving efficiency.

“It has saved us a significant amount of time in our due diligence processes. Now, we only have to focus on the issues that are found within the reviews that Venminder completes for us. This has meant we have the time to be more strategic and can focus on those specific findings and getting them resolved.”

Result

Since partnering with Venminder, ACA feels they now have well-developed processes in place and an exam ready program.

“While we have not had any examiners in since we installed Venminder, we are really looking forward to being able to present them with the information via the Venminder system. I won’t have to physically download ‘100 million’ documents, and instead, can use the exam prep feature to prepare everything for them.”

When asked about ROI of automation and investing in tools that improve their third-party risk management program, Laura shared her thoughts on why many find it hard to understand.

“From an ROI perspective, there is a definite ROI for investing in a company and tool like Venminder. I don’t think the return on investment is as tangible to some people, because they don’t always understand that increased speed to market, being protected from a company standpoint, and protecting our consumers are imperatives in the financial services industry. It’s not always visible. It’s often underlying, but it’s very important to us to take proactive steps to protect our organization and customers from third-party risks, like breaches for example.”

Laura actively recommends Venminder to anyone in highly regulated industries and thoroughly enjoys being a Venminder partner.

“Everybody has been very responsive and helpful. The system is wonderful. It has streamlined our once manual processes, how we report to executives as well as how we manage our business. I definitely recommend Venminder to anyone and especially the financial industry. We have loved being partners with Venminder.”