Additional Enhancements Facilitate Dealer Compliance with Adverse Action
and Privacy Policy Requirements
Lake Success, NY - DealerTrack, Inc., a subsidiary of DealerTrack Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRAK), today announced several enhancements to its DealWatch(TM) compliance product that will enable dealers to electronically capture, store and manage all of a dealership's customer-related documents.
These updates include DealWatch's new external document functionality, which is now available nationwide. It allows DealWatch subscribers to scan, upload and store external deal documents, such as service contracts, buyer's orders and customer verification documents (deal "stips").
"With these upgrades, dealers using DealWatch now have significantly enhanced tools to facilitate compliance and help protect their dealerships against potential liabilities," said Mark O'Neil, chairman and chief executive officer of DealerTrack. "Our low-cost scanning solution will make it both easy and economical for dealers to store and retrieve all of their customer documents in a secure electronic vault." He added, "With the addition of document scanning and storage capabilities as well as the new adverse action notice and privacy policy functionality, DealerTrack now boasts the most comprehensive compliance solution available, supporting a dealership's sales and F&I processes."
The enhancements to DealWatch also include the capability to customize privacy notices, which dealers are required to give to customers to comply with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and electronically capture customer signatures to acknowledge that they have been presented with the privacy notice. The notices are securely stored within the customer's electronic deal jacket. The privacy notice functionality will incorporate the Federal Trade Commission's current proposed model privacy notice, which dealers can customize to correspond with their information-sharing practices.
In addition, when users pull credit reports through DealerTrack, they can now automatically create and print adverse action notices pre-filled with necessary information. New DealWatch functionality enables securely storing these notices in the customer's electronic deal jacket to document the dealer's compliance with the law.
DealWatch, introduced in 2006 and fully integrated with the DealerTrack network, is a robust compliance solution that helps dealers monitor the gathering and handling of sensitive customer information, signature capture, customer identity verification and more. DealWatch encrypts customer information and stores sensitive data in a secure electronic filing cabinet - helping to avoid the liability that unsecured paperwork can pose. Customers can sign documents electronically, and auditable records of who accessed the information and when are created and stored automatically. The solution also enables dealers to monitor deal activity to ensure that every employee is following the same steps, which can help prevent mistakes and costly litigation.
About DealerTrack
DealerTrack Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRAK) is a leading provider of on-demand software and data solutions for the U.S. automotive retail industry. Our solutions enable dealers to receive consumer leads, submit credit applications, compare financing and leasing options, sell insurance, vehicle accessories and other aftermarket products, document compliance, and execute financing contracts electronically. In addition, the company provides dealer management systems (DMS) through its Arkona, Inc., subsidiary. Over 22,000 dealers, more than 400 financing sources, and many other service and information providers are active in the DealerTrack network. For more information, visit www.dealertrack.com.
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements
Statements in this press release regarding DealerTrack, the benefits of the enhanced DealWatch solution, and all other statements in this release other than the recitation of historical facts are forward-looking statements (as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995). These statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements of DealerTrack to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.
Factors that might cause such a difference include: increased competitive pressure from other industry participants, the inability to execute any element of DealerTrack's business strategy, including the retention of dealers and financing source customers; selling additional products and services to existing and new customers; success in expanding our customer base and product and service offerings and integrating acquisitions; and other risks listed in our reports filed with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2006.
