Who is wfs financial

In , Earnest S. Rady, chairman of Westcorp, the parent company of Western Financial Bank, founded an independent lending company to provide car and truck loans to consumers. The company, which provided an alternative to loans from manufacturers' lending arms, began operations with one dealer in California. It securitized its contracts through sales of investment-grade securities on Wall Street, with the company servicing its loans.

The company grew quickly for the remainder of the s and throughout the s, expanding its territory and making auto loans to consumers through automobile dealerships. In , it incorporated as Western Consumer Service, a wholly owned consumer finance subsidiary of Western Financial Bank, to provide non-prime automobile finance services. This market was one not serviced by the bank's automobile finance division.

During the first half of the s, WFS underwent steady growth that almost doubled its size. By , the company had 32 offices. Within the next few years, it was originating contracts in seven, primarily western, states.

By , WFS had a network of 14 dealer centers and 63 branch offices that covered 13 states, including two states in which the company did not have offices. At Westcorp, she rapidly worked her up in the company, occupying several positions at there and at Westcorp's subsidiary, Western Financial Bank.

As president and chief operating officer of WFS Financial, Schaefer was instrumental in orchestrating its growth and development. Competition with other lenders for borrowers increased in the mids, pushing loan rates downward, and WFS Financial, along with other auto financers, began to stretch its standards, taking on more risk for less return by making loans to people with tarnished credit. From to , Schaefer enacted a strategy for aggressive expansion based on focusing more on the non-prime market.

During the second half of the s, "WFS Financial continue[d] to experience increasing loan volumes due to its geographic expansion and continued growth in existing markets," according to Schaefer in a company release.

By , the company had issued loans in 32 states, with non-prime loans accounting for fully 50 percent of the loans issued. Unfortunately, these non-prime loans resulted in a sharp rise in the company's loan losses and delinquencies in Other auto lenders that also specialized in non-prime loans were similarly struggling with rising delinquency rates and increased competition, and many did not survive.

WFS Financial took stock of where it stood and made the decision to slow down its growth with fewer loan originations. In , Schaefer, at the age of 38, succeeded Earnest S. Rady as chief financial officer of WFS Financial. That year, she also led the company on a corporate restructuring plan. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning the proposed Mergers or other matters and attributable to Wachovia, Westcorp or WFS Financial or any person acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above.

Wachovia, Westcorp and WFS Financial do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, relating to the matters discussed in this news release.

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ET Sept. Written by: Unknown Author — Unknown Author. Free Whitepapers. The deal will make Wachovia the nation's ninth-largest auto loan originator, just ahead of Bank of America Corp. Through the deal, Wachovia will add about 8, auto dealer clients and , customers. The deal also will give Wachovia 19 branches in Southern California. Wachovia Chief Executive Ken Thompson has said he would like to expand the bank's footprint into California if the right opportunity presents itself.

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