Farmington Hills-based RouteOne LLC announced Tuesday that Louisiana-based sub prime lender Crescent Bank and Trust has joined the growing roster of finance sources on RouteOne's Web-based credit application management system.

Crescent Bank and Trust is ranked within the top 150 auto finance sources nationally and operates within 20 states.

"Crescent Bank and Trust is a welcome addition to our platform," said Mike Jurecki, RouteOne CEO. "Providing Crescent Bank and Trust as an available finance source option on RouteOne enhances our ability to provide our dealers a broad spectrum of credit buying."

"Our integration with RouteOne will help enable our dealers to improve their efficiencies and profitability in the F&I office," said Leon Poche, CFO, Crescent Bank and Trust. "We look forward to working with RouteOne to assist our dealer customers in improving their bottom line, selling cars, and working their deals as fast and efficiently as possible."

In addition to providing access to both captive and non-captive finance sources through a single portal, RouteOne offers a wide variety of tools to assist the dealer in managing their day-to-day business, such as a detailed reporting suite, DSP integration, and credit bureau access, all within a single desktop application.
RouteOne was formed in 2002 by Chrysler Financial, Ford Motor Credit Co., GMAC, and Toyota Financial Services to create a more streamlined credit application for automobile dealers and their customers. Providing access to more than 21,500 dealers in North America, RouteOne's web-based system allows automotive dealers to submit credit applications to the largest indirect lenders, request credit reports, and increase profitability with RouteOne's free Dealer Reporting Suite.

More at www.routeone.com.

Crescent Bank & Trust, a privately owned corporation, was founded in 1991 by an investor group formed to acquire the assets of Columbia Homestead, a savings and loan institution. On Sept. 18, 1991, the ownership group was granted a charter to open City Bank & Trust, a $20 million, one-branch bank with three employees located on West Harrison Avenue in Lakeview.

Desiring to add to the deposit and loan accounts purchased from Columbia, the management team continued to purchase loan pools over the next few months. In 1993, a decision was made that was to define and fuel the explosive growth of the bank. Success resulting from the purchasing of loan pools along with the management's previous experience in finance company originations led the bank to develop a program to provide higher risk consumers an alternative to conventional financing through automobile dealers. The program, one of the nation's first of its kind by a bank, was highly regarded and an instant success. It has been imitated by many over the years but never with the same level of achievement.

In 1994, Crescent Bank opened loan offices in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria and Shreveport to tap into local indirect financing markets. These loan production offices have provided a presence for the program across the state, giving the Bank penetration into the local market. The name was also changed in 1994 to Crescent Bank & Trust.

Since that time, Crescent Bank & Trust has expanded lending operations into many states across the country, and continues to add locations every year. New Orleans remains the home of the main operations center for Crescent Bank & Trust, in addition to its retail branches.