ConsumerFi Podcast: Managing Growth and Efficiencies with Veros Credit COO, Harvey Singh

Transcript

[00:00:20] Today, we have, we have Harvey Singh. Who’s the CEO of verus credit and, um, Harvey, you and I were talking a little while ago. And the basis for why I’m having you on is that you, we basically doubled the business in terms of portfolio while holding your operations head count flat, you guys you’ve grown the business.

[00:00:42] You had an audacious five-year plan and you’ve, you’ve also driven some efficiencies during that time as well. And I think this is a really important topic because the way that I said it to you was I feel like this is COO Nirvana, right? Like this is the dream of all CEOs to be able to pull this off. Um, [00:01:00] so that’s our topic for today, but, but Harvey, why don’t you do a quick intro for folks that may not know you.

[00:01:07] Harvey Singh: [00:01:07] Sure. Uh, you know, first of all, thank you for thinking of me and adding me to this podcast. Uh, you know, it’s always a pleasure seeing you and speaking with you and get, uh, you know, kind of update in the industry what’s going on. And, uh, you know, I’m excited. Um, as far as myself Harvey saying, uh, No, I’ve been, I’ve been in the financial sector for 20, 21 years now and started starting with a household beneficial child purchased by HSBC.

[00:01:41] I was there for several years, several years. Um, from there went to new century mortgage, did subprime mortgage. Uh, I was there for several years, manage all the front end and the backend. And, um, from there went to credit union, uh, I [00:02:00] was there for four years, uh, you know, did similar kind of set up coming out of 2008, 2009, uh, real estate debacle and, uh, you know, delinquency and, uh, Their ratios were slipping away where, and you and, and DFI was, uh, looking into the numbers.

[00:02:21] And, uh, so we made, you know, strategy and process along with the system improvements, uh, which tremendously helped, uh, lowering their delinquencies and losses. And, uh, we were able to get out of the watch list from DFI and NCUA. And, um, from there, you know, I. Was doing what masters and finance. And once I finished that and I felt that it was time for me to make a move.

[00:02:51] As you know, at a credit union, it’s very, very difficult to grow. And the organization has nobody retires, nobody [00:03:00] leaves. And, uh, it was, it was going to be a long journey. I enjoyed my time there and I still have a good relationship with the team members. Um, From there. I went to Westlake financial services, uh, started their strategy and process improvement and eventually took over the servicing department.

[00:03:19] Uh that’s you know, similar. Aligned people strategically updated the systems and updated processes. Uh, delinquency was running a little bit of higher, uh, you know, in 2010, 2011 started to tick up. And, uh, right before I left, uh, delinquency was in control and losses came down, um, and I was offered a. Great opportunity by my CEO at barrels credits.

[00:03:50] And I’ve been here for four little over six years now. And, uh, you know, there’s never a dull moment. Uh there’s there’s [00:04:00] always moving parts. And, uh, I think we, we have set up are tremendous. Team who is, uh, as a driver behind that, the company success, uh, you know, with, uh, with the company vision, uh, and it, and they all, you know, dual down from the CEO and, uh, you know, he held my hand, guided me and to help me a lot, understand the front of the, of the business, the operations as my background was really the, uh, you know, um, uh, servicing aspect of the business.

[00:04:34] So I kind of took what we were doing on the surface state, uh, as it’s, uh, more of a, you know, assembly line. And, you know, I looking at the six Sigma type of a experience. How to get in and how to get out and what you get out of that, uh, and how we can maximize that during, in between input and output. And, uh, [00:05:00] we took that approach and really focused on people, focused on the, the processes.

[00:05:05] And, uh, and then most importantly, when we. Achieved where we needed to be with our staff and where we needed to with the processes. Then we started to enhance our systems in the last three, four years. We changed our servicing system, uh, you know, origination systems and other other systems that are kind of, uh, you know, working components along with those two front end, your back pillar.

[00:05:30] Two and a half cents the efficiencies, uh, across departments. And, uh, and I think that has tremendously helped us build our portfolio. When I started, um, you know, we were in an intimate, a hundred million portfolio, and now we’re getting close to 400 million portfolio. Operating expenses, you know, double as a 50, 60% decrease while increasing, um, the portfolio, our staffing [00:06:00] level has increased.

[00:06:00] And, uh, we have worked with a lot of vendors trying to give them more business and build that relationship. So they are able to make money. And at the same time we’re able to minimize our costs. And, uh, I think our team and, and I don’t want to take the full credit. I think. The, you know, each area and it started from the frontline staff member to the middle management, to the executives.

[00:06:26] They all have done a great job on really, really focusing on each single expense that is coming into the company and how we can have a better control to minimize that. And, uh, and, uh, four years ago, our focus was really how we can. Scale or set up the system to scale our business or the total managed portfolio, doubling it up or know, tripling it up and we’re able to handle it without ma you know, adding much more staff.

[00:06:58] And, um, and I think, [00:07:00] and at the same time we looked at it. You know, to minimize our cost of funds and we really drove down everything else to make ourselves more relevant. When we go out in the securitization market and investment banking side that we’re able to present where the confident levels that they will be able to see us as.

[00:07:21] You know, upcoming company and a technology driven company that will be able to sustain, not just what we have, but also continue to improve and add more while we’re continuing to improve our backend support costs. So. I think that’s, that’s what has, uh, has helped us in the past several years. And w we’re always looking, always looking at, uh, you know, what’s coming ahead and, uh, what we need to do to really, um, really be, be up front and able to not just capture the business, but at the same time, how to service that business at a minimal [00:08:00] cost.

[00:08:00] Yeah.

[00:08:00] Joel Kennedy: [00:08:00] And you guys, so, I mean, I love the process-based approach and that’s something and I can definitely wrap my head around, I think about, you know, what is the outcome that I want. Right. Uh, how did you, you know, do that? You attack like the revenue side first. Did you attack the efficiency side? Did you kind of do it all at once?

[00:08:17] I mean, How did you go from that concept to taking that first step? Because you’re talking about growing the portfolio, you’re talking about competing in the market. You may want to change the, the, the, the mix, the credit mix, the quality that you’re bringing on. Um, you got to control the losses. You might be looking at expenses like to walk us through how you kind of conceptualized, where to get started.

[00:08:40] Harvey Singh: [00:08:40] I think the, the first thing is really people drives the company and, uh, we, we really focused on people and engaging staff and making them understand what company is evolved, where we are headed and, uh, One of those are really long-term goal. And then we’ve figured out and [00:09:00] we looked at each individual or each department, you know, staff members or the team members sitting in each area really aligning them to their still level.

[00:09:10] And, uh, you know, then we looked at, uh, of course the will. If somebody doesn’t have the willpower, we already have an issue. We want to make sure that we were trying to performance them up. Or if not, then we will performance and not wait. I mean, we don’t like turnover, but at the same time, we want to make sure that we have the core team members who are.

[00:09:33] Aligned with the company’s vision and they understand where the ship is going and they are ready to jump on and, and, uh, and sail with us. And, uh, if someone’s not going to, if someone’s not ready for that, then we, you know, we want to make sure that we either take care of them and bring them up to speed or up to par and enhancing their skill set or we’ll we’ll level.

[00:09:57] Otherwise we have to drop them off the ship. [00:10:00] That. And

[00:10:00] Joel Kennedy: [00:10:00] that’s such an important, that’s such an important point, Harvey, because when you’re I think of it and I think you were using this kind of language, I think about, we’re going to take a journey together. We’re all going to the moon, right? So who of you guys doesn’t have any interest in being in space?

[00:10:14] Raise your hand. Cause if that’s the case, like this is not for you, it’s just, it’s it’s, it’s just not for you. It’s, it’s not an indictment of you or anything, but it’s just not for you. And I love that concept because if you try to take that trip. With some percentage of people who aren’t on board, they are, they are going to create so many problems, right.

[00:10:35] They’re rowing in the opposite direction of where you want to go. Um, and so I, I can see that you guys probably had to manage maybe some people who are maybe on the fence, right. Manage them through that change process to get

[00:10:47] Harvey Singh: [00:10:47] them to buy it. Yeah. It it’s, it’s, uh, it’s a very important, uh, Piece of the puzzle before we start looking at it and start putting everything else together.

[00:10:58] I think [00:11:00] people drives performance. People drive the culture of an organization and we want to make sure we want it to make sure we still do our, our culture and our vision are the two more, most important component of success. And, um, I mean, it’s so much easier to just put a paper out there and, uh, You know, but we want to have, we want to have, uh, you know, we want to grow.

[00:11:27] We want to make sure that the wealth we grow, that we share with the, with the team members who that who gives their, you know, or gives their a hundred, 10%, uh, to the organization. And we want to make sure that we reward them. And that’s what the focus really been. And once we did that and, um, Yeah. You know, variables, we are decentralized model and 2004 and fire.

[00:11:51] And then once we aligned the people we figured who needs to go where, and who’s going to come to the corporate, then we started to [00:12:00] centralize everything. Each function we started to bring from all of our branches, brick and mortar that we wanted to get rid of and, and really do most of our. Uh, most of our work from the, from the headquarters and not from the operating expenses standpoint, but at the exposure from the compliance standpoint, uh, as we wanted to make sure that we have, you know, all of our policies and procedure internally or regulatory policy, that we are able to train every single person at one location and weekend.

[00:12:31] You know, we’ll make sure that we can monitor their success. We can monitor what they’re saying and what they are doing and have a much better control. And that’s has that has tremendously helped our compliance fees, you know, as we come here, Ourselves to our peers, uh, on all these regulatory portals, you know, how many complaints we get, what type of complaints and how they’re addressed.

[00:12:54] And those are the things we really, really fine tune at the same time. Um, and then, you know, while we’re [00:13:00] closing the branches and, uh, centralizing everything. So that was part of our process strategy, you know, and, and, and, uh, you know, compliance, uh, kind of improvement. Uh, we, you know, Our legal and compliance team always been up to par.

[00:13:17] They’re very conservative and, uh, I think. That has kind of helped us really stay, uh, stay out of the radar and, uh, and do the right thing. I mean, we want to make sure we take care of the customers as you know, these are the customers that, who are going to talk good to the other customers when they go to the dealership, maybe they can tell the tell, tell the dealership, or this is the lender that we, you know, if we can possibly get submitted to that gives us more dealer signups, which mean we were going to be more, get more.

[00:13:48] Referred applications and possibly fund more loans. Right. So I think that has helped us capture a little bit more business and, uh, while we’re growing in other areas, [00:14:00] um, and then the last thing after, you know, centralizing everything, improving our processes, uh, we went, um, We went toward improving our systems and we kind of gutted out, you know, when we wanted to see where we can automate 10, where we can take some of the repetitive functions that are being handled by our individual, that they can, they can work on, you know, really work that they need to do as a, as a human being and took all the, uh, all the repetitive, uh, methods and take it on and automate that.

[00:14:34] And that that could be processing and adjustment. And that could be, uh, sending a document to an, a customer for a J you know, extension, uh, due date change or any type of workflow that it’s through automatically that it’s, you know, document, it goes out. And it goes through through the, uh, system process automatically, then it goes to accounting, they double check and they automatically [00:15:00] processes in the system.

[00:15:00] So where I had, you know, an agent or the customer service rep, they’ll create a document, physically fax it or email it document comes in and somebody has to walk it to a supervisor. So those are small things, but there’s a lot of times than some debt during that. Uh, During that because of the limitation of systems.

[00:15:20] So those are the things we have done. Um, and then, you know, we, we kind of applied what we did in a backend first. Then we started to look at all different areas. And how we can apply the same assembly line process to fine tune every single step of, uh, of an, a function and, uh, and really clean that process.

[00:15:41] And, uh, and it worked for the lot.

[00:15:43] Joel Kennedy: [00:15:43] That’s, that’s, that’s outstanding. And I think the centralization in my mind, I know this may not be really how it works, but. Let’s see, you had four branches, you kind of have four different relationships. You have four different people you need to sell. Um, you centralize it.

[00:15:59] My understanding [00:16:00] of a decentralized of a, of a decentralized model is that you’re really looking at these, uh, localization issues of being close to the dealers. Being able to get some, you know, maybe additional auditing, um, having, uh, folks that underwrite the deal, maybe even go out and check on the dealers and service them from time to time.

[00:16:19] Um, and that’s been the selling point, right? They, they, they know the customer, they know the dealer, they know the portfolio, they manage it from womb to tomb. But, um, but you guys made that shift and I support that. My question is. When you, when you made that move from the decentralized to the centralized, were there any situations or functions where you felt like you were walking around, walking away from something really valuable, right.

[00:16:43] Like that dealer relationship or ability to audit and if so, like how did you address that?

[00:16:47] Harvey Singh: [00:16:47] No, we, we did the way we did feel and we still do. I think that there, you know, in a decentralized model, having a branch, you have a dealer coming in and bringing in a contract and they’re, you know, having a chit [00:17:00] chat with a person who’s looking at.

[00:17:02] The contract, we did lose that. And I, I think that’s something we will never be able to fill. Uh, however, we looked at the long-term and how we can not just serve that dealer, but at the same time, how we can serve them in a faster manner where they can get a quick response and able to close the customer instead of, you know, underwriting a deal themselves, and then bringing it into the branch where, um, We might have to make Jocelyn to the way they underwrote the business.

[00:17:31] Right? So four years ago we knew that the world’s going to digitize and, uh, you know, with a dealer track and rock one and all these different, uh, you know, middle, middle components coming in. I, you know, we looked at it that. That individual relationship kind of going disappear. And, you know, we didn’t expect COVID to happen, but I think forward actually changed the complete playground of what’s happening.

[00:18:00] [00:18:00] And, uh, you know, as you mentioned, I think dealer relationship parted a little bit, but now we actually see in the last several years that actually relationship God is stronger than where we are getting much more. A higher capture rate because dealers are getting much faster responses and that, and we have to go, we had to hire a little bit more staff who is able to kind of call and capture the business at the same time initially.

[00:18:31] And then they will, you know, we will have our sales team constant visit through the dealership. So they see our individual drive. So we had to do that little bit more frequent frequently than we are currently doing. But I think now we have pretty good, a pretty good relationship with a digitize. And, uh, I think dealers are much more sophisticated than four years ago.

[00:18:56] A lot of the independent dealers, their kids are grown and they are [00:19:00] kind of a handling the business too now. So they are more tech savvy than their parents were. So we’re seeing a change in that, uh, in that area as well. So I think longterm, um, That’s the challenge. If you know, some of our smaller peers that if they don’t make that shift soon, that there might be some further challenges down

[00:19:22] Joel Kennedy: [00:19:22] the line.

[00:19:23] Yeah. I think of things such as omni-channel right. That have been the lifeblood of keeping, um, volumes at the dealership up. Uh, obviously there’s been disruptions within the supply chain with, with vehicles not being repossessed. Right? So you, you don’t have as much inventory, uh, to push through. Um, What do you, what do you think is, uh, from your standpoint, you know, what I’m hearing is that you guys made some enhancements to a lot of your processes and systems.

[00:19:54] How did they enable you guys to better deal with the whole COVID thing? Cause that’s my assumption is [00:20:00] that there’s a couple of things that you guys did where you’re like looking back saying, Oh my gosh, thank God we did this because this really helped us to, to manage this transition and try to keep things as regular as possible.

[00:20:13] Harvey Singh: [00:20:13] You know, we kind of, uh, we were already doing some of them work anyways. Uh, you know, we had obviously reps working from home and they would VPN or use a virtual server, uh, VMware to connect to our corporate, uh, or our data centers. Right. So, uh, one of the other thing we added during. The people I meant and, uh, you know, making sure where we can get a cheap labor.

[00:20:38] And we, we did near, near offshore, um, strategy in there. So we had a staff sitting outside of the country, uh, kind of managing some of the. You know, some of the data entry, some of the, you know, kind of repetitive functions that where automation is not automation is not there that we cannot do. So, [00:21:00] um, so they were already logging in.

[00:21:02] So we were kind of already there that if something would happen, especially when you come into the securitization market too, you have to be ready. If something happens that we have to, you have to hand over all your stuff to somebody who’s able to service the portfolio. So right.

[00:21:18] Joel Kennedy: [00:21:18] And then, and then your, your business continuity, obviously we’re in Southern California, fire events happen, and we just had some not too long ago.

[00:21:24] And so, you know, we’re accustomed, I would say. Yeah. I mean, for

[00:21:28] Harvey Singh: [00:21:28] regulatory, regulatory and scrutiny, you know, and, uh, from the system perspective, as something happens, you can depend on staff sitting in orange County headquarters. So, you know, we already had, um, You know, the system in place where, you know, it goes from one location in, um, California to location.

[00:21:50] And part of

[00:21:51] Joel Kennedy: [00:21:51] you guys, you guys have done a significant amount of preparation, right. For, um, essentially COVID without even knowing it, uh, what were the [00:22:00] meaningful things or the things that were most impactful that, that you and Cyrus have seen that you made these moves where you said, Oh man, thank God.

[00:22:06] You know, we did this.

[00:22:09] Harvey Singh: [00:22:09] I, you know, I think the main thing was that we are able to function. We could have everybody, I mean, before we had a branches, only 14 branches, and now we have 220 branches, right. Because you have people everywhere. So, uh, we were thankful that we, you know, we were. Up ahead, getting that set up and being ready and more so looking at having a staff in a different areas and possibly having an office in a, in a different, uh, uh, you know, different States.

[00:22:44] Uh, in the future to service our customers. Um, but I mean, the biggest thing was that, you know, that we were able to function with a 220 people working and able to, you know, perform as we would sitting in one [00:23:00] building from the network and, uh, the infrastructure standpoint. So that was the one, one of the biggest reliefs that, uh, that made us, uh, that we, we, we are ready.

[00:23:10] We are ready to continue to. You know, add more and, uh, and be able to maintain. And now with COVID, uh, you know, We feel very, very confident that we can go anywhere in the nation and have a staff and able to service with, uh, having much better control from the system standpoint, monitoring people’s activity, monitoring their calls.

[00:23:35] Uh, you know, we have speech analytics that we’ll be able to. Put certain words, if they’re staying on a call to a customer, to a dealer and automatically spit out a recording to their immediate supervisor, to make sure that we’re not, you know, we’re not saying anything, we’re not violating anything. I think those are some of the things that we worked on in last several years.

[00:23:56] And it’s, we are seeing that that’s definitely paying off.

[00:23:59] Joel Kennedy: [00:23:59] That’s [00:24:00] great because a lot of, I think a lot of people look at that type, like a nice to have compliance thing. When in fact, if you want to facilitate this remote work, um, it’s a far more reasonable control.

[00:24:13] Harvey Singh: [00:24:13] Gavin, please. I know you mentioned earlier about omnichannel.

[00:24:16] I mean, those are some of the things we started with like email and text messages and all these, you know, smaller things, but in the last a year or so, uh, we have worked on not just those two items about looking at a web chat, uh, you know, where a customer is able to communicate with our, uh, you know, with our customer service representatives through there.

[00:24:35] Um, you know, all other components, uh, you know, speaking with a customer that where they can, they can communicate through WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, and all these different, uh, social media, you know, um, communication channels that they’re all integrated into one system that we are able to track what, you know, what our staff is saying and how.

[00:24:59] It’s [00:25:00] being, uh, you know, things are communicated to be, make sure that we are in compliant. And, uh, you know, we have a couple of quality assurance, people who are constantly looking at those things to make sure that we’re not saying or responding to in a different manner than, than we normally would require our people to do.

[00:25:18] Joel Kennedy: [00:25:18] Yeah. So I was, you know, in, in, in coming to a close here, I was going to ask about, you know, what are some of the things that you think were. We’re really powerful plays and omni-channel is obviously one of them. It sounds like you guys are, um, even, even a tip on, Hey, what’s hot, new the fact that you guys have those social media platforms where you can use them as communication vehicles is really tremendous.

[00:25:39] I I’m not, I don’t think I’ve heard of anybody else really using that in our, or our, our business, you know, the, the, the chronic kind of credit spectrum, et cetera. Um, so that’s, that’s fantastic. We’re coming up on. Another, you know, we’re, we’re in another bit of a COVID bubble here. Um, are there any things you guys are looking to do in [00:26:00] particular for 2021 that you think.

[00:26:02] Are neat and exciting that other people can kind of learn from. And I should also throw this in. Um, if you like what you’re hearing from Harvey and I’m sure you do, uh, Harvey moderated a session for the national automotive finance association, a couple of weeks back, it was our first take at a, uh, Like a, a COO panel or, or executive panel focused on the, the servicing and portfolio aspect.

[00:26:25] So if you attended that conference and you have access to the library, uh, please do check that out, but, but I’ll turn it over to you. I mean, thinking of 20, 21, you know, what are some of the neat, cool things you guys are examining or maybe looking to implement?

[00:26:39] Harvey Singh: [00:26:39] I mean, I, you know, I think from the, from the people process and systems standpoint, I think we, we have pretty good to hands around and now our goal is really to grow and we’re looking at adding additional States, uh, and looking at how we can capture a little bit more business in a current States.

[00:26:57] We’re in right. So, and [00:27:00] then most importantly, how we can minimize our operating expenses and, uh, we will continue to focus on technology, finding different ways to automate some more processes and, um, and, and looking at so where are the opportunities and really closing those, those holes and, uh, You know, we’re, we’re in a fast environment, there’s always a change.

[00:27:24] And, uh, you know, you’d never know what’s going to be coming ahead of us, so we just want to be prepared. And, uh, and the always looking toward, uh, you know, making a quick change when something comes ahead and we’re able to take control and char and, and lead with that. Uh, and, uh, and that’s why really our focus is, you know, being alert, vigilant, and, uh, and, and focused on where we are headed.

[00:27:49] And we have a target to reach that we set five years ago and, you know, COVID kind of slowed things down. However, I think we were ahead of the curve and, uh, [00:28:00] uh, we, you know, if we maintain what we are doing, we’re probably still going to achieve our goals that we set five years ago. Um, but our focus is, uh, you know, that the goal we have on, we just want to drive toward that, that.

[00:28:14] You know, I’m a big believer. And so is our team at Barrows, starting with the CEO where, you know, it’s not about, it’s not about to keep adding the business. It’s about, you know, that business that we can keep our hands around and the business that we can. Service our customers and service our dealers and take care of our staff, you know, from safety standpoint.

[00:28:40] And, uh, from financial aspects standpoint, that bottom line is a key component. I mean, we’re not, uh, we’re not looking to, you know, just keep adding the, the top level or the, you know, from the, from the financial aspect, but we really focus on the bottom line and, uh, You know, [00:29:00] we, we want to do the right thing, right.

[00:29:02] Thing for our dealers, right. Do for our customers and, you know, right thing for our employees and, and you know, our vendors who we do business with, uh, you know, we want to make sure that we take care of everyone. Um, that’s always been the focus and we will continue to focus on that and keeping all those things in mind.

[00:29:21] Uh, And we will continue to push and drive and go with the wave. Whereas going as long, we keep curving and staying on our wave, that where we want to take that wave too. So, and I think, uh, we have strong team. I Barrows, uh, feel very, very confident that we will, we will, you know, make sure that we bring that curve in life, you know, in line to where our focus needs to be

[00:29:45] Joel Kennedy: [00:29:45] incredible.

[00:29:46] Harvey. I hope we get to hear more and more from you. Harvey. You represent to me. Um, you know, somebody who’s who who’s getting it done, but you’re also, uh, being very kind with, with all the peers in the environment and creating, uh, these [00:30:00] forums, right? Like the, the, that, that forum we had in the NAF conference, this, um, I found you to be very accommodating.

[00:30:07] If I have questions, you know, best practice sharing. This is really. Gets into more of the mentoring aspect within the industry. And I think that as we move forward, people who, or more visionary in terms of their application of the people and process and technology and using a structured approach such as you did, I think a lot of people are going to have a lot of questions and I would, I would love to encourage that dialogue.

[00:30:30] I’d like to continue facilitating that through, through whether it’s direct or something like this or the NAF. So Harvey, I can’t thank you enough.

[00:30:38] Harvey Singh: [00:30:38] No, I, I thank you as well for having me on this podcast, you know, as you mentioned, I’m pretty open. Uh I’m you know, I, I don’t take it in as when I’m sharing something, obviously I’m not going to give our secret sauce, but as far as, you know, what are the, uh, best practices, what we are doing.

[00:30:56] Um, and I’m not saying we’re doing it in the best way. Uh, there are [00:31:00] organization who are lot, a lot better. Uh, you know, I’m not saying we’re going to do the same thing, what they are doing, but at the same time hearing and what they are doing and kind of, uh, exchanging ideas, uh, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s a good learning experience.

[00:31:16] And, uh, You know, at the end of the day, we look at it as all of our peers that were in the same platform. We want this industry as Otto to succeed and, uh, you know, we want to help each other out because if one falls up falls out, it’s not just going to impact them. It’s I think it’s going to impact the industry as a whole.

[00:31:35] So, and I, I, you know, I look forward to meeting and hearing, hearing from new faces and, uh, I think it’s, it’s, uh, Much more knowledge experience for me to learn. And, uh, uh, you know, from last 20 years I’ve met a lot of people and, uh, I have, uh, you know, gone through a lot of mentorship myself and, uh, you know, and I want to [00:32:00] continue to learn myself and, and apply those changes to our not just professional life, I for personal life as well.

[00:32:07] And so, uh, once again, having me on this podcast podcast, I really appreciate you. And, uh, Look forward for more.

[00:32:17] Joel Kennedy: [00:32:17] That’s a fantastic way to end it. I love the spirit of, of the, of the best practice sharing. And I can’t think of a better time. No during COVID that, you know, we should really look to push a little more and make these types of things, uh, kind of the norm Harvey Singh CTO with Barrows or COO with verus sorry, Cyrus.

[00:32:37] Uh, and if everybody knows Cyrus, Cyrus is a CEO he’s equally as competent and just a wonderful guy as well. Harvey, thank you so much.

[00:32:46] Harvey Singh: [00:32:46] Definitely more. He’s definitely more competent than I am. Yeah. He’s, he’s definitely more, a lot more confident than I am as well. So, uh, you know, I think as I mentioned, uh, you know, I learned from a lot from [00:33:00] him and the rest of the teammates here, um, you know, I think, uh, I think it’s a, and it’s sometimes it’s not about money and many, you know, most of it it’s that I think the culture and the environment of the organization, the family way of doing business.

[00:33:17] I mean, that’s, uh, I really enjoy on a daily basis. Um, and I’m, I’m, I’m learning every day. And, uh, I think, uh, where I am, I’m not, uh, you know, just by myself, I think there has been people, as I mentioned earlier, came in my different, uh, You know, a different, a different timeline of my career and most importantly, importantly here.

[00:33:40] So, um, I’m, I’m thankful for it, for everything I’ve learned here and other places. And, uh, I’m a strong believer having good relationship with wherever I go wherever I am. Uh, and not just professional, just personal life as well.

[00:33:56] Joel Kennedy: [00:33:56] Yeah. And yeah, and we’ve seen that, [00:34:00] you know, a lot of people have done a lot more self care during this whole time and.

[00:34:03] Uh, it’s fantastic situation. Well, Harvey, once again. Thanks. Thanks again everybody. It’s Harvey saying who’s the COO of verus credit.

[00:34:12] Harvey Singh: [00:34:12] Thank you. Thank you again. Stay safe, everyone. Bye. Now

[00:34:16] Joel Kennedy: [00:34:16] the consumer five podcast has been brought to you by Northbridge loan software. That accelerates change. We’d also like to thank the national automotive finance association.

[00:34:26] The only trade association, exclusively serving the non-prime auto financing industry. [00:35:00]