DALLAS — F&I product provider EFG Companies has Richard Christensen as vice president of product development. According to the company, Christensen brings 25 years of experience in the automotive retail industry and reinsurance business.

Christensen most recently served as a senior director at Hyundai Capital America, where he was responsible for launching and managing a captive insurance subsidiary of HCA. He also served as president of Nissan Global Reinsurance Ltd in Bermuda, and functioned as a senior manager of vehicle service contracts for Nissan North America in Los Angeles.

“Today’s dealers are under an immense amount of pressure, from undertaking stringent compliance initiatives to incentivizing new consumer groups to enter an automotive market with ever higher entry-level price tags,” said John Pappanastos, president and CEO of EFG Companies. “Dealers need agile partners who are constantly looking ahead to see where the industry is going and to look at new challenges as opportunities to increase dealer profitability. At EFG, we consider ourselves one of those partners. The addition of Rick to our leadership team strengthens our position in leading the industry in terms of product innovation and administration of quality consumer protection products that benefit consumers, dealerships and the industry as a whole.”

Christensen added: “Dealerships and lenders need better ways to connect and retain purchase behavior with a more informed and demanding consumer. We’re doing very progressive work that is aligned with our goals of leading the industry in focusing on customer service and consumer benefits, with an eye towards compliance and sales process for the dealers and I’m excited to be a part of it.”