Why motor finance lenders are moving away from manual broker oversight

Rising regulatory expectations and growing operational complexity are forcing motor finance lenders to rethink how they oversee intermediary relationships, with firms increasingly moving away from manual, resource-heavy oversight models towards more scalable digital frameworks.

Oodle Car Finance is among the lenders leading that shift, having transformed its intermediary oversight process through a collaborative digital oversight model developed with Auxiga and jaam automation.

Six months after implementing the Auxiga Oversight Portal, Oodle Car Finance says it has moved from a fragmented manual process reliant on spreadsheets, emails, Word documents and physical site visits to a more scalable and standardised oversight framework designed to support both regulatory governance and broker relationships.

Previously, much of the oversight process depended heavily on account managers carrying out manual checks and on-site reviews, creating growing operational pressure as regulatory requirements intensified, particularly under Consumer Duty.

Gethin Down, senior intermediary oversight manager at Oodle Car Finance, said:

“Regulation is becoming more and more resource intensive. When you’re looking at something like Consumer Duty, we needed a platform that could be more agile and could evolve alongside the regulatory environment.”

The Oversight Portal combines regulatory oversight capability with automation and AI-enabled processes to provide lenders with a more structured and auditable approach to intermediary compliance management.

Oodle Car Finance has now onboarded almost 70 brokers through the platform as part of a phased rollout programme, replacing inconsistent oversight processes with standardised digital attestations, structured audit workflows and improved reporting visibility for senior management.

The lender says the portal has significantly reduced administration time while improving consistency and transparency across its broker network.

Lisa Attenborrow, intermediary onboarding oversight manager at Oodle Car Finance, said: “The portal has significantly reduced administration time. The old process was much more manual, where we’d be chasing account managers and checking spreadsheets and Word documents. It’s saved us a massive amount of time and resource.”

Beyond efficiency gains, Oodle believes the technology is also changing the relationship between lenders and intermediaries by making oversight more collaborative rather than purely supervisory.

Down added: “This changes the nature of intermediary oversight from something you do to your partners, to something you do with your partners. It becomes a collaborative process. It builds trust and transparency.”

According to Auxiga, the shift reflects a broader trend across the lending market as firms seek more scalable oversight frameworks capable of meeting rising expectations around governance, audit defensibility and evidencing customer outcomes.

Paul Neal, managing director at Auxiga, said: “The industry is reaching a point where manual oversight processes are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain efficiently at scale.

“Lenders need visibility, consistency and defensible governance frameworks that can evolve alongside regulation. What we’re seeing now is oversight becoming a strategic control framework rather than an isolated compliance exercise.”

The Oversight Portal was designed specifically for the UK motor and asset finance sector and continues to evolve, with future developments expected to include enhanced management information dashboards, expanded on-site audit functionality and CRM integration capabilities.

As Consumer Duty obligations continue to increase and intermediary networks expand, lenders across the sector are increasingly recognising that oversight is shifting from fragmented manual administration towards more technology-enabled, scalable and collaborative governance models.