Wholesale finance lenders are modernizing their technology infrastructure to prepare for AI-driven operations, replacing fragmented legacy systems with unified platforms that consolidate loan origination, dealer onboarding, inventory management, and auditing into a single data layer. This shift comes as floor plan expenses have surged 39% in the second quarter of 2025, driven by longer vehicle inventory holding periods and rising interest rates, creating urgency for lenders to streamline operations.

What's Driving the Wholesale Finance Technology Crisis?

The wholesale finance industry faces a fundamental infrastructure problem. Most lenders still operate on legacy technology systems that were never designed for today's transaction volumes. The core issue is that critical business functions like loan origination, dealer onboarding, inventory management, and audits run on separate systems that do not communicate with each other. This fragmentation forces finance teams to manually track and piece together data across multiple platforms, a slow and error-prone process that limits growth and makes it nearly impossible for artificial intelligence applications to function effectively.

The financial pressure is mounting. When vehicles sit on lots longer and interest rates remain elevated, lenders' portfolios face increased risk the longer inventory goes unmonitored. This combination has pushed the industry to seek faster, more efficient ways to track and manage inventory. However, without unified data infrastructure, even the most sophisticated AI tools cannot deliver the insights lenders need to make better decisions.

How Are Leading Lenders Solving the Data Integration Problem?

Companies like SBS, a global financial technology provider whose wholesale finance platform powers operations for auto finance companies including Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota Financial Services, and Volvo, are replacing disconnected systems with unified infrastructure built for scale. The SBS wholesale finance platform connects dealer onboarding, inventory management, and floor plan billing in one integrated system, replacing the disconnected tools lenders have relied on to manage these processes separately.

By consolidating the full wholesale lifecycle into a single data layer, these platforms create the foundation that AI-driven applications need to automate decisions, surface portfolio risk earlier, and reduce manual overhead. The platform also includes digital audit solutions that replace paper-based inventory inspections with real-time, technology-driven audits that reduce costs and improve accuracy across dealership networks of any size.

Steps to Modernize Wholesale Finance Operations

• Consolidate Disconnected Systems: Replace separate loan origination, dealer onboarding, inventory management, and audit platforms with a unified infrastructure that allows all systems to communicate and share data in real time.
• Implement Real-Time Audit Solutions: Transition from manual, paper-based inventory inspections to technology-driven audits that provide immediate visibility into dealership inventory and reduce operational costs.
• Build a Unified Data Foundation: Create a single data layer that serves as the foundation for AI applications, enabling automated decision-making and earlier risk detection across the entire portfolio.
• Establish Scalable Infrastructure: Deploy platforms that can scale across thousands of dealer relationships for global manufacturers or serve independent dealers across multiple states without requiring separate implementations.

SBS recently announced the launch of SBS AI Foundation, which is being built into all SBS products, including those for wholesale finance lenders. This new functionality will enable faster innovation and growth without compromising risk management or compliance capabilities.

Why Is Leadership Expansion a Signal of Industry-Wide Change?

To lead its U.S. expansion, SBS has appointed Ron Spratt as Senior Vice President, tasked with growing the company's presence among U.S. floor plan lenders. The team includes Leigh Revis, who brings 15 years of experience in automotive finance and a background at Datascan, and Zak Gordon, formerly the Regional Director at NextGear Capital. This leadership expansion reflects the strategic importance of the U.S. wholesale finance market and signals that modernization is no longer optional for lenders seeking competitive advantage.

"Wholesale finance lenders are still running on legacy technology systems that the rest of the financial services industry moved away from years ago. Most are still working with data across systems that do not talk to each other, managing audits manually, and all of these siloed systems mean that AI cannot be effective. The lenders that modernize now will be the ones who can use AI as a competitive advantage rather than scrambling to catch up," said Ron Spratt, Senior Vice President at SBS.

Ron Spratt, Senior Vice President at SBS

The SBS U.S. client base is growing, with recent additions including Dealer Financial, a floor plan lender serving independent car dealerships across South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, which selected SBS to modernize its wholesale finance operations. This expansion demonstrates that both regional and national lenders recognize the urgency of replacing legacy infrastructure.

What Does This Mean for the Broader Financial Technology Landscape?

The wholesale finance modernization trend reflects a broader pattern in financial services: organizations that fail to unify their data infrastructure will struggle to implement AI effectively. The challenge is not simply adopting new technology but fundamentally restructuring how financial data flows through an organization. Lenders that complete this transition now position themselves to leverage AI for competitive advantage, while those that delay risk falling further behind as the technology becomes standard industry practice.

The 39% increase in floor plan expenses in Q2 2025 serves as a wake-up call for the industry. As inventory management becomes increasingly complex and costly, the ability to make faster, data-driven decisions becomes a matter of financial survival. Unified platforms that consolidate data and enable AI-driven automation are no longer luxury investments; they are essential infrastructure for lenders operating in today's market conditions.