Heavy-equipment dealers are arranging financing for customers faster than ever as lenders embrace the digital age and deploy new technology.
OEMs are working with their lending partners to adapt, Chad Aust, regional sales manager at Bloomington, Minn.-based equipment manufacturer Toro, told Equipment Finance News during the 41st annual Equip Exposition this week in Louisville, Ky.
“Everything is going digital, from applications to approvals. The days of paper financing, paper applications are pretty much gone. So, we just have to make sure our dealer networks are with the times and ready to do business in the current environment.”
Chad Aust, Regional Sales Manager, Toro
Ninety percent of financial institutions offer online loan applications and 65% offer mobile applications, according to an August report by digital lending solutions provider MeridianLink that surveyed 252 FIs. In fact, roughly 57% of respondents said their entire lending process is fully digital.
Pre-approved loans
More customers are expecting a seamless financing process when they walk into dealerships. Pre-approved finance is one way heavy-equipment lenders are meeting this customer demand, Cameron Stull, finance integration manager at John Deere Financial, told EFN at the event.
“We’re really leaning into that e-commerce space and making sure that customers have the ability — before they get into the dealership — to know whether or not they’re qualified for credit and make sure that they have a good experience from both us and the dealer,” Stull said.
The speed of pre-approvals has been a major change in the equipment finance sector, New Holland Construction Product Manager Dan Kakarenka told EFN.
The multinational equipment manufacturer recently launched an online application platform that allows customers to “get pre-approved for the unit they’re interested in without having to go into a dealership or visit our capital company,” he said.
CNH Industrial Capital is the captive financing arm for CNH Industrial subsidiaries New Holland and Case.
AI drives automation
Equipment financiers are also leaning on AI-driven technology to expedite the lending process, Jody Ray, relationship manager at Chicago-based BMO Bank North America, told EFN at the event. BMO is a lending partner with Perry, Okla.-based construction equipment manufacturer Ditch Witch.
“It used to take banks days, sometimes weeks, to take the application, underwrite the loan and review the financials. Now, starting from entering that application into our system, a lot of the technology is run in the background and immediately done through an algorithm that weighs all the attributes that we’re looking for, and we can get an automatic decision about 60%, 70% of the time.”
Jody Ray, BMO Bank
In one recent case, AI allowed BMO Bank to finalize a deal in less than five hours from the time the customer walked into the dealership and inquired about a loan, Ray said. The approval process itself took about 15 minutes, with the AI evaluating factors such as credit history, income and the desired unit.
Register here for the free webinar “Used equipment financing in 2025 as markets normalize,” taking place on Tuesday, Oct. 22, at 11 a.m. ET.
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