The introduction of GDPR over the last 12 months appears to be behind a slight increase in online motor finance conversion rates, says iVendi.

James Tew, chief executive, said that the company had expected the new legislation to reduce the conversion rate of customers that were applying for finance but instead there had been a marginal increase of a few percentage points in conversions.

He explained: “When we first started looking at the implications of GDPR a couple of years ago, we thought it was inevitable that putting tougher and more compliant processes in place would lead to a slight decrease in conversions.

“However, now that we are almost 12 months into its operation, the opposite has proven to be true.”

Tew said factors pertaining to approvals have remained largely unchanged, but he put the percentage increase in conversions down to GDPR.

He said that the experience was perhaps a valuable lesson for iVendi and the industry as a whole – that regulation could create a boost to business.

Tew said: “We are being quite careful about the claims we are making here because it is difficult to say exactly why GDPR might have lead to better finance penetration.

“Our thinking is that there are probably two factors. One is that the existence of GDPR might make some customers more comfortable with the whole process.”

Tew said exercises like GDPR prompt good organisations into rising to the challenge and creating better products and this may be an even greater factor behind why regulation has boosted conversions.

iVendi has invested more than £1 million in total to make sure its platforms were GDPR compliant for its 7,000 dealer customers.

Key features created include a secure consumer account area, the ability to hide customer bank details from view once they have been entered into an application form, controls over the export of customer data and the addition of fair processing notices for lenders.