The online lender SoFi, which is going public through Chamath Palihapitiya's blank-check company Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. V (IPOE), will soon let members refinance auto loans on its platform.
Bloomberg reported today that SoFi plans to team up with the start-up MotoRefi to make the offering possible. MotoRefi helps customers find affordable auto-refinancing options through partnerships with community banks and credit unions.
"We constantly hear from our members on what products they'd like us to offer, and auto loans have been a consistent request," said SoFi's Executive Vice President Jennifer Nuckles, according to Bloomberg. "We also looked at our internal data and found that a large portion of our members carry large auto loan balances, and ... could benefit from refinancing."
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SoFi plans to essentially plug in MotoRefi's solution to its platform through an application programming interface (API). Then, for each referral, MotoRefi will pay SoFi a fee, according to Forbes.
Auto refinancing is the latest product SoFi will offer in its growing list of solutions for consumers.
The company already offers home mortgages, student loans, personal loans, and credit cards. The company also has an online brokerage that it is ramping up and last year purchased the fintech Galileo, a platform that helps other fintechs carry out front- and back-end functions.
SoFi also recently said that it plans to acquire the tiny Golden Pacific Bancorp in Sacramento in order to accelerate its goal of obtaining a bank charter, which will greatly streamline its operations.
The move into auto refinancing certainly continues SoFi's strategy of diversifying its lending operations and revenue streams in order to get more out of the typical consumer who too often uses multiple banks for their financial needs.
