How did car finance companies become indispensable to manufacturers?

In automotive jargon, these car finance companies are referred to as “captive”. The term might not sound too reassuring, but it simply means that the finance company belongs to a manufacturer and provides financing for its vehicles. In the case of Renault Group, the story goes back to 1924, when Louis Renault founded DIAC (Diffusion Industrielle et Automobile par le Crédit), helping customers to buy his cars through loans. Originally developed in the United States, this innovative concept played a major role in making car ownership more affordable.

One century later, Renault Group’s finance company is far more than just a loan provider. Its main role today is in leasing services: financial lease with purchase option, operational lease, balloon credit with buyback, etc. It also provides insurance and maintenance services, with 3.6 million insurance and service contracts sold in 2025. “We’re not just a finance company. We’re also an insurer and provider of vehicle services,” explains Jean-Baptiste Fournier, Product Manager with the Marketing & Strategy department of Mobilize Financial Services, the name adopted by Renault Group’s finance company in May 2022. 

Not all of the finance company’s four million customers are retail buyers: others may be shopkeepers, self-employed people financing a van, SMEs using dealership services to manage up to a dozen vehicles or more, or larger companies building up a fleet.

Mobilize Financial Services is also unusual in another way: it’s a bank with no branches or over-the-counter services. "Our advisers are the car sales people promoting our finance and service packages”, explains Louis Baptiste, Director of Business Development & Efficiency. 

The sales team works for some 1,600 dealerships partnering the car finance company in 35 countries. Every day, they sell vehicles for Renault, Dacia and Alpine, as well as Nissan and sometimes other makes depending on the country (for example, Geely in Brazil). As part of the sales process, they provide customers with the financing and insurance products of Mobilize Financial Services. 

The word “captive” might suggest that the dealers are tied to their finance company. But it’s actually the other way round: the finance company is tied to the Group brands. “Of course, network dealers can – and do – sell other types of financing. But they wouldn’t be part of an integrated process in the same way as with us,” points out Martin Thomas, CEO. 

He adds, “We have a century of cooperation with the network behind us: we know it better than anyone.” And the dealers are customers too, accounting for nearly one euro loaned in every five, for vehicle stocks and cash flow.

As a result, the company financed over 1.2 million applications in 2025. That’s more than 3,000 cars a day – over two a minute, day and night, including weekends! Today, more than four in every ten new cars sold by Renault Group are financed by Mobilize Financial Services. Financing is now the norm: six out of every ten car buyers in Europe opt for a financing contract rather than cash. “Buying a car is often the second-largest expense for a household, after their home,” points out Jean-Baptiste Fournier, who emphasises that financing is by no means a last resort. 

Ownership itself is becoming less common. In France, over 80% of new cars financed by Mobilize Financial Services are sold through leasing contracts, as are nearly half of all used cars. How does it work? For a car costing 20,000 euros, with an estimated value of 12,000 euros after three years, the customer only finances the difference. When the lease is up, they either buy the car, return it, or acquire a new one. This trend began in the United States, before spreading to the United Kingdom and then to the European continent. 

While the operations of Mobilize Financial Services may be low-key, its human and financial impact is anything but. Taken together, the monthly payments add up to an impressive €61.8 billion in outstanding loans**. With its 4,000 employees, the finance company also accounts for a substantial part of Renault Group’s profits. 

And that’s not all! ”Until now, the main focus has been on the vehicle’s first life,” notes Martin Thomas. Today, the finance company is keen to finance more used vehicles, “not only for the vehicle’s second life, but also its third”. More specifically, a new Clio leased by a young executive might be sold on in three years’ time to a family requiring a second car, and then, a few years later, to a third driver. Whenever a car changes hands, the finance company aims to provide credit, insurance or maintenance. Making car finance companies even more indispensable than before.

*Prices as at 6 October 2026 on the Renault Group website: ** Outstanding loans: the total amount of money lent or leased by the finance company and not yet repaid (in this case, the average for the first half of 2026).