Centrix Financial, a Centennial-based provider of “subprime” auto loans, cut 100 jobs Thursday in a corporate restructuring.
“We are doing a consolidation of our two main operating divisions – loan management and loan production,” said spokeswoman Lauren Sides.
The privately held company has automated its loan-approval process, she said.
The intermediary between auto dealers and loan providers also saw demand from credit unions, its major source of capital, dry up last summer. Sub prime loans are made to borrowers with impaired credit ratings.
The National Credit Union Administration had cautioned credit unions – whose accounts it guarantees – about using third-party loan intermediaries such as Centrix to provide loans to subprime borrowers.
Centrix laid off 150 workers in September and has scrambled to find other lending partners, such as banks and private and institutional investors.
NCUA regulators and Centrix officials have been meeting to hammer out their differences.
“We have made substantial progress in understanding their new guidelines,” Sides said.
Centrix now employs 1,100 people, where once it had 1,500.
The company has underwritten 250,000 loans totaling nearly $4 billion since 1998. It also owns the Denver Grand Prix auto race, held annually in August.
Staff writer Aldo Svaldi can be reached at 303-820-1410 or asvaldi@denverpost.com.
