The domestic Big Three automakers are pooling their Internet resources to create a uniform system for processing credit applications. The new system also will provide F&I managers with Internet links to banks and credit unions, hopefully reducing approval times by a significant amount.

The captive finance companies of the Big Three – DaimlerChrysler Financial Services, Ford Credit and GMAC – all were asked by their dealers to commonize the system, according to spokesman Stanley Stein. An office to develop the system has been established in the Detroit suburb of Southfield, Mich., where DC Financial Services and GMAC are both headquartered.

“Everything that can simplify and streamline steps for the dealer is something we like, especially with multiple brands so common,” says Al Gossett, a Memphis, Tenn., dealer who serves on the advisory council of Chrysler Financial.

Standardizing reporting and credit rating reporting are other goals of the initiative, for which a chief executive officer is being sought. “The initiative,” says Stein, “is more evolutionary than revolutionary. It’s an idea long on the planning board whose time has come.”