Blockchain Innovations To Reduce Vehicle Ownership Costs, Improve Customer Experiences

BMW Bank, Ford Credit, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, and MOBI are among mobility leaders working to solve customer, manufacturer, dealer, and lender pain points with more efficient financing solutions

Vehicle purchases are the second biggest transactions in many people’s lives, and are key drivers of the global economy, with close to 80 million vehicles sold each year. MOBI’s Finance, Securitization, and Smart Contracts (FSSC) Working Group released blockchain-based standards today to make the vehicle finance process easier and more transparent for lenders, manufacturers, dealers, and consumers.

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Implementing blockchain in the vehicle finance life cycle will increase trust in the process, reduce fraud, enable future innovations, and improve data privacy by offering a secure, decentralized alternative to traditional databases, which are centralized and therefore more vulnerable to tampering and errors.

“There is increasing interest in blockchain industry federations and standards,” said Tram Vo, Co-director and Founder of MOBI. “Blockchains enable a transactional record that can be securely shared across business networks, accelerating the digital transformation of network economies. Consumers and businesses alike will benefit from these shared data assets and processes.”

The FSSC WG is co-chaired by Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP and RouteOne, with support from Accenture, Altaventure, BMW Bank, CEVT, Connections Insights, CO-OP Financial Services, ConsenSys, D.E. Consulting, Ford Credit, Global Debt Registry, IOTA, KAR Global, On the Road Lending, Quant Network, Quantstamp, Reply, Tezos Foundation, and USAA.

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In search of ways to improve transparency and efficiency within the vehicle finance ecosystem using blockchain, MOBI’s FSSC Working Group considered both B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) use cases to generate value for consumers and financial institutions in eleven distinct areas:

• Know Your Customer (KYC) Requirements
• Dealer Floorplan Financing
• Dealer Floorplan Auditing
• A Blockchain Foundation for Securitization
• Verifiable Credentials in the Loan Application Process
• Digitization of Manual Processes with Smart Contracts
• Non Risk-Based Credit
• Loan Servicing
• V2X and Securitization
• Issuance and Investor Impact Reporting for Green Bonds
• Fractional Ownership of Mobility Assets

“Blockchain technology will impact the Automotive Finance Industry enormously,” said Phil Masi, President of BMW Bank of North America. “Blockchains and distributed ledgers will enable better accuracy, transparency, and process efficiencies by allowing financial institutions to trust the data they have, mitigate risk, have more confidence in their decisions, and ultimately help the industry realize digital transformation more quickly.”

In addition to blockchain, related digital technologies like smart contracts and verifiable credentials will play key roles in the future of vehicle financing by tracking collateral and payments, thereby reducing risk, lowering borrowing costs, and improving customer privacy. These applications will enable more seamless and trusted vehicle finance solutions, resulting in a better customer experience and lower cost of ownership.

“Auto and dealer floorplan financing through securitization is critical to the economics of the auto industry, and there are innumerable blockchain applications that can make securitizations more secure and efficient,” said Howard Altarescu of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP. “There are even more exciting V2X opportunities to harness data from the vehicle data marketplace and to provide financing, including through securitization, for roads and mobility infrastructure.”

The FSSC Standards leverage blockchain to provide a trust layer wherein all parties are able to validate each other’s identities and ensure data authenticity, resulting in a shared platform for deploying vehicle finance applications. Manufacturers, dealers, lenders, and consumers alike will benefit from the smooth, frictionless operation of multiparty applications, and trusted shared data.