Auto-Finance School Thinks Globally

Andrew Johnson
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 5, 2006 12:00 AM

A Scottsdale-based school that trains people for finance jobs at automobile dealerships is hoping to spread American financing practices to foreign banks and dealerships by enrolling international students.

The Automotive Dealership Institute received approval from the Department of Homeland Security last month to accept international students through the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System, or SEVIS.

The school’s goal is to teach international students ideas and practices that have worked here so they can use them in their home countries, said Alan Algan, CEO and executive director of the Automotive Dealership Institute.

Some Asian countries, for example, do not have credit bureau systems, so banks use investigators to verify whether a potential lessee is qualified for a car loan. Investigators will visit people’s homes to see what kind of lifestyle they have and interview their neighbors and friends.

In addition, many foreign dealerships do not offer extended service contracts or gap insurance, which is common practice in American dealerships, Algan said.

“By allowing dealerships to introduce those products to the customers and the bank allowing the dealerships to include those products automatically in the financing, dealerships could make more money,” he said.

Algan, a dealership financing veteran from Canada, started the Automotive Dealership Institute in 2004 after working for a similar school in California.

The school offers a four-week Automotive Finance Management curriculum that trains people, primarily for financing jobs at auto dealerships.

The school starts a new session every four weeks, and each session is limited to about 12 students. Although the school has not yet received applications from international students, Algan said he expects the school will admit one or two international students per session.

The school has a marketing partnership with the Asian Banker, an intelligence provider for banks and other institutions in the Asian Pacific region. Aglan said such a partnership would help spread awareness about the institute’s program.

The Automotive Dealership Institute received permission to grant M-1 visas, which are reserved for vocational and technical training schools.

The visas allow international students to enter the country a month before the program starts and stay in the country for up to a month after the program is completed.

The institute is now one of 151 schools in Arizona certified under SEVIS, according to the most recent information available from the Department of Homeland Security.

Institutions certified through SEVIS undergo an investigation of financial records and the backgrounds of the schools’ leaders. The process took months, Algan said.

The majority of students who attend the Automotive Dealership Institute are between 20 and 50 years old, he said, and about 80 percent of them come from out of state.

The school does not plan to increase its enrollment as a result of being able to accept international students, he said.

Reach the reporter at (602) 444-8280. Read his entrepreneurs blog at bizblogs.azcentral.com.