July: An Interview with Matt Burke, President & COO Of Agora Data

Used Car News' Managing Editor, Jeffrey Bellant, and Matt Burke of Agora Data discuss Agora's Market Research Study:  Independent Auto Dealer Financing Challenges in 2026. 

View the report here: https://agoradata.com/revenews/independent-auto-dealer-financing-challenges-2026/

Music is: "Twisted" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome to Used Car News Podcast. Used Car News is your top source for fast and reliable news that car dealers can rely on for this evolving industry.

SPEAKER_01 0:25

Hey, welcome everyone to this month's edition of the Used Car News Podcast. I'm your host, Jeffrey Bellant, and today our guest is Matt Burke. Matt Burke, and you'll be familiar with some of these names. He is uh co-founder, president, CEO of Agora Data. He's also CEO of Center Street Finance. And the big news, of course, is this year he became president of the National Automotive Finance Association, or as we in the business call it NAF Association. Welcome, Matt, to the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 0:56

Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's been an honor to uh be on uh a few interviews, but this one is especially uh important to talk about the NAF and uh really what what we're doing this year uh as a focus.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Perfect. Okay. Well, let's just start out a little bit of background on you. Um you're with Agora Data and uh Center Street Finance. Could you just tell me a little bit about how you got in the finance business?

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Yeah, you know, uh so kind of similar to the the legacy with NAF, you know, my dad was one of the founding members of NAF. Um I actually uh, you know, he got me into this business. The car bug bit me. Um being a dealer, car dealer uh for decades and then making the move into the finance company industry. Um and then, you know, that's where I kind of joined in. Um, you know, that that's the kind of the bug that bit me was the car business, uh, but even further, more focusing on the finance company side. Um it's a yeah, it's a great industry to participate in, and it was a great way to kind of take some of my entrepreneurialness and um throw it into an industry that has it uh rampant within the car dealer side, uh, not so much on the finance company side, lots of banks, right? So um it was a great focus to kind of for my for my career.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Great. What was your dad's name again? Steve Burke. Okay, great, excellent. That's good to know. Um, and now um with with your experience in the finance side, what do you guys, what do you guys try to do at Agora and and um your business there?

SPEAKER_02 2:26

So at Agora, we we unlock basically capital markets for the car dealer, right? We make them into kind of mini finance companies, but really overall, um we're really taking all those loans and um you know, we take them to the securitization market and package them together, right? But the the cool and uniqueness is that we get to pass back what we call additional loan profit back to the dealer. We make them turn to a little bit of a mini finance company kind of that they get to understand all the secret sauce of modeling and everything so that they can, if they want to, understand that modeling. But we really simplify it down, right? We take something that's really technical and simplify it into should you or should you not do this loan? Should you or should you not add it into the portfolio that you could earn additional loan profit on, right? And it's really kind of changing the way that finance works and talking about how can we help these car dealers build wealth? Because, you know, everybody's worried about what is that next chapter? What's retirement look like? How are all these big major brands going to impact what the future is of being a car dealer, right? And that part of that is should they buy the real estate, should they start their own, you know, kind of reinsurance company, should they, what should they do? Well, Agore is very plug-and-play with that. They should keep the loans, keep the ultimate profit that they can make on financing those loans.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Yeah, that's great because that's the challenge for them, is always, you know, you want to you want that um you want that cash flow, but sometimes you need the capital. And so this sounds like you have a little bit of both worlds there.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

This is a little bit of a both worlds, right? It's not just like standing up your own kind of bank line of credit, starting your own servicing center or anything like that. Um, this is plug and play. You really don't feel the difference on the front end of the transaction than how you would sell a loan to another lender, right? And so this is really plug and play in that instance, and it really helps these folks build wealth. Um, and that's really what we're about.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

And do you hear from your clients, your dealers, whatever, about you know what they like, what was different about it to them, and what what are the good things that you hear from them?

SPEAKER_02 4:41

One of the best things I think is this air of kind of transparency, right? It's you know, in in this space, and we'll talk about you know, kind of best practice sharing with NAF and all of that. Sure. It's really about that. It's really about this sense of community that we come together with the car dealers, okay, and and you take their opinion and say, okay, do we need to change the program? And really it's about this uh overall alignment of interest, right? Um, so the very uniqueness is that they're building their own portfolio, their own wealth. And it's very similar to like a 401k, right? Some months you won't be able to put as many loans into it, some loan months, you know, you don't need as much cash for expenses, so you could throw more loans into it. Um, but it's this um collaborative effort to build a portfolio.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Is that something that you guys have been? I'm sorry, is that something you guys have been doing for a bit?

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Yeah, it's something we've been doing for quite some time. 2020 is when we started, um, really focusing on various aspects of the the dealer community. Um in 2017 is when we established Agora, right? Right. In 2020 is when we launched what we call Agora Capital, and that's what serves the community um to allow them to basically take those loans and make more on them, keep that upside profit.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Now that happened around the year of COVID. Did did COVID affect you one way or the other?

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Or oh yeah. Uh that was, you know, we started out in 2020 when COVID, um, you know, everybody was getting kind of COVID money, right? Uh so it was kind of good in the beginning in that sense, but really um uncertain times, right? And then we get into you know, 21, tail end of 21, 22, and 23, when the industry as a whole, you know, had experienced uh spikes in fraud, spikes in bad loan performance coming off of the COVID years. Um, you know, so we've had a really fun um history here at Agora of you know jumping in and kind of hitting the gas when you know you have to do it really the right way, right? You have to manage that risk the right way. Um really lucky how we kind of got into it and and you know, kind of continue that evolution every day, right? We call it kind of the evolution of Agora. Um, it's actually a document that we maintain here, which is kind of the story of Agora. Um and it's this not only narrative, but it's this story that shows you kind of change logs. And it's really important because you can see the changes in um our business over time and track those.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Excellent. And people got to check out uh Agora site because they do they they do give out information, they do reports and things like that that'll give you a little hint of uh give you a little sense of what's going on in the industry. So that's the the generous apart, which is great because I know that's more of a service, I would think the industry. And and so that's kind of helpful for dealers to keep an eye open to see what what may be coming or what's happening.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

Yeah, definitely. And it's it's again playing off into this whole topic of NAF and the national, you know, how on a national basis, how can we collaborate together? And it's again just the same way. It's about this alignment of interest. How can we together build a better industry? And it's not car dealers and finance companies separately, it's together. How can we together build this industry in the next chapter?

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Um that's that listen, that's a great uh that's a great uh uh transition point here to NAF for people. This is the 30th anniversary of NAF, and uh Matt Burton now is president of the group. Now, with all the stuff you got going on, how do you manage this? First of all, let me ask you this what prompted you to get involved? Because we know that with these trade groups, that's that's volunteer work, you're getting into it, you're you're you're spending time there that you could be spending time in business. Why was it important to you to get involved in any other?

SPEAKER_02 8:25

You know, not only is it it was important from you know my dad being an early member of NAF, but um Jim Bass, who has been kind of a mentor to me throughout my career, you know, I've I've known Jat Jet uh Jim since we lived next to him in in Arlington a long time ago.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Get out of town, yeah. That's great.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

So, you know, but Jim has, you know, was another reason for me to get involved, but more so it's about giving back to this the community, right? It's again, and and I I'll I'll say it probably too many times, but it's really about how can we together build a better industry? It's not you we can be competitors, but at the same time share information so that the bad actors don't take us all down. Right. It's about you know how together we can best practice share, how can we build relationships, collaborate, and learn from one another, right? And that's that's kind of what I want to focus on, right? And and you know, NAF is a great forum to do that because it's specific for auto finance. That's that's our sole purpose, and it's we don't do any lobbying, right? It's the main driver is is collaboration, um, best practice sharing. It's you know, how can we stay informed, connected, and prepared for what's next in our industry? Because you know, technology is really going to take us to that next level. And are we really prepared as an industry?

SPEAKER_01 9:55

And you're obviously the members involved in NAF are good. How do you get that people who aren't members to get involved? Because we we see it on the independent dealer side with NIADA or other groups that um they don't a lot of them when they're outside don't appreciate that when they're inside, they never leave. They like they they realize what they've been missing. Um, how do you how do you when you talk to guys, maybe your businesses that aren't in the NAF, is this the way you pitch it?

SPEAKER_02 10:22

You know, this is the way you pitch it, right? And so a lot of folks come to the national, you know, the annual conference that we hold here in the DFW area. Um, but even though the convert the the the conference is over, the conversation shouldn't stop, right? And that's where that's one of my focuses. Um, you know, a few years ago we developed something called the NAF networks, right? And what I would like to do is to continue to push that, right? The the staying connected doesn't just have to be from a compliance aspect because compliance is ever moving, right? It has to be across the entire business, right? If if my head of risk here wants to say, hey, I'm seeing some weird noise, I want to go ask the community. They need a community to reach out to, not just the folks that they've worked with in the past, but the community of folks to say, you know, what are you guys seeing? How can we have this? And you know, it's really interesting because the other day, I forget what news outlet had it, but somebody was saying that is the car dealer now the last line of defense for against fraudulent income and such, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:26

That's great.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

And, you know, that's an interesting thought because they've been kind of that frontline, right? They're kind of responsible if there was any fraud that happened in that beginning, you know, or misrepresentations, I'll call it, because misrepresentation is a better word because you don't really know what happened and where. It's kind of hard to prove.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

And so these misrepresentations, you don't know what happens. And is that car dealer really that last line of defense? Well, yes and no, but it's a partnership, right? And that's something that NAF should help with, right? And how can we bridge that gap? You know, we have some car dealer members, um, you know, which is is great, and it's important because it's that partnership. So, how do we continue? You know, is the after the conference, it doesn't stop. It's about continuing with that community. And that's really what I want to help drive home this year, is that these NAF networks, which meet you know, about three times a year.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

What is the NAF network? What is the NAF network then for people who don't know?

SPEAKER_02 12:32

So the NAF networks are just separate little um smaller groups, smaller networks, right? Of folks, like, for example, we have a leadership network. Um folks will from leadership can focus on leadership topics, you know, um, how are you motivating your employees in the sense of you know, remote work, hybrid work? How are you recalling folks back to the office if you're recalling them back to the office, right? That's an example of it, doesn't have to be secret sauce, it's just in general, how can you solicit a group of folks? For example, you know, one of the big things that I'm I was a big believer in, and you know, I've had a few life events that haven't let me go to it yet, but this year I get to go, which is the executive exchange in September, right? Okay, and that's the thought process. It used to be called the C-suite retreat, now it's about the executive exchange. And it's all about exchanging ideas. What are you seeing? What is going on? You know, and that's one level. Another level to keep people engaged is how can we get some of the younger leaders in their organizations experience quicker?

unknown 13:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

How can we get them directly with the folks in one of those networks, such as the leadership network, right? Where they get to talk to all these folks that are uh, you know, titles all over the place from C-suite to VP level to maybe even director or or uh an analyst level, right? How can you bring them into the room and all have good ideas and all build off of each other? All right, and that's really what it's about. Again, giving back to that community, best practice sharing and and kind of innovating together.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

Perfect. That's great. You know, it's funny you talk about the dealer's last line. An IDA had a um uh Houston auto fraud uh uh police officer in there a few years ago. And he talked about some type of thing where they worked with dealers, the dealers would say, Listen, I got this thing here, this looks kind of funky. And I remember they they had arrested this person, and then like three years later, I guess after the person had got out of jail for the first offense, they ended up catching him again because the dealer said, Yeah, this, I don't know, this this paperwork's kind of funny, even though it looked straight on, you know, straight up. But he he he got a bad vibe from it, and as a result, they were able to make an arrest on that.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Yeah, I mean, again, partnership, community, it's all about that. That's what I mean, that's what business is really all about at the end of the day. Um, and profit. And you know, like at Agora, our mission statement is to basically make the the transaction profitable for all. Well, that doesn't mean that it, you know, it's it's one-sided, it's making it profitable for the consumer. Well, how do you charge them interest to make it profitable? Well, you eventually charge them less interest, yeah, right? Um, you know, profitable for the dealer, profitable for our investors, the capital markets, all stakeholders, right? And that's that's really what we try to drive home is profit for for all.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Is there anything uh NAF members? You know, I hear things like, you know, I always think of like sometimes lenders will either anything, I guess they maybe bigger lenders, sometimes they're kind of late getting into the rush and early getting out. Um, it are you seeing any trends that um or hearing concerns from your members about stuff they're looking at.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

And and be one more specific a little bit more specific. When you say that you're talking about um just trends that they're seeing in the industry, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:52

And and on their ends, whatever. I mean, I don't know. Um, or or even trends that they're concerned about. It could be like uh uh compliance could be something else.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

I mean, the hot topic right now is AI. Okay, yeah, yeah, for sure. And the hot topic is how can we stay ahead of the regulation? Meaning we know eventually regulatory regulation will come. How can we stay ahead of the regulation and do things the smart, the ethical way, you know, using models for the good, right? Because, you know, if you use an AI model, how do you know what biased are in there? Do you really have proper model governance on these AI LLMs that people are allowed to use, right? How are you implementing it into your business, right? Oh, that's a really heavy, deep conversation, right? Sure. You know, but that's uh, you know, you're starting to see folks, how can I implement it? Now there's been kind of this trend of how can I do it in a secure way, right? The recent headlines have kind of driven folks into okay, well, maybe I need to pull back a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Um, you know, and that's a big deal, right? Validating that the information that the models give back to you is correct, right? It's been around in risk forever, right? Well, AI is really a model, right? Are you driving it through your risk organization or are you driving it through just uh you know, slot?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Almost like with you know, you at the very basic level, say college students or kids doing reports or okay, it's one thing they're using it to help you for research. There's another thing, do you know what you're getting? You know, and and is it and for you guys, it's it's money and fines and everything if it's wrong.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Right. But it's you know, it's it's there's a good side and there's a bad side, right? So use it correctly, right? So for example, you know, one of the one of the um you know, one of the models that we use is it actually caught misrepresentation of income. It said that it's seen the pattern of transactions multiple times over a course of a couple months, right? So that's a that's an example of good AI, right? Catching good, but bad AI is like I said at the start of the call, you know, is that dealer or or earlier, is that is the dealer last line or the first line of defense?

SPEAKER_01 18:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Right? If they got brought all stuff that was created by AI and it's pretty good, how do you know it's real or fake?

SPEAKER_01 18:16

For sure. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's a great, I mean, that's the topic everybody's talking about. And I don't think that's gonna be going away anytime soon.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

And that's where that's where, you know, as an NAF, we have to grow together as a as a whole industry. And I mean that again with the car dealers and with finance companies together. Um, obviously there's there's you know things that finance companies need to focus on more and things that dealers need to focus on more. But together, you know, as a whole, as a um, as a community with NAF, how can we, you know, this year, how can we create more opportunities for folks to engage and connect, right? Um and and that comes through you know holding events and getting folks of all different levels together.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

Very good. And it sounds like you're you're fired up for your year as president, which is really what you want when you have a leader of a trade group like that.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

Oh, yeah, definitely. And and I uh Jennifer, who's the head of you know, who's uh the director, she's done an amazing job. Um, she has made that conference um almost like this. You you want to be there, and you want to be there the whole time because there's these events every single um evening that are like a big party, but it's like it's a desirable event to stay at. And um, it keeps people engaged the entire time from saying, Oh, I fly in for a day and I leave. Um it keeps them there the whole conference, right? And now it's how can we take that and keep that going the whole year?

SPEAKER_01 19:51

That's great. And yeah, exactly right. Those networking things, you know, that it's not just drinks and orders, it really is. You're you're talking with the people, you're gaining knowledge, you're gaining wisdom from your fellow folks, your fellow members.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Yeah, I think I think the folks back at the office here joke a little bit every time I go to one of them because I'm messaging them saying, Hey, had you thought of this?

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

It comes from a conversation, uh, you know, whether it's over food, cocktail, or whatever that's going on. It's really comes from the conversations um and the the the what the conference actually puts on. Um, you know, that's a big focus of what I think is, you know, people have been hearing from the industry is how can we um stay ahead with technology right now and how can we stay ahead together with the car dealers, right? Um the you know, everybody's talking about how fraud is rampant with AI, but how can you um how can we stay ahead together?

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Right. Excellent. Boy, this has been great conversation, Matt. And folks, um here here he's he's the association, he's your leader of the association, NAF him and then Jennifer, executive director, correct? And while the the conference is gone, you do have these upcoming things. You can ask uh Matt or Jennifer, go into the NAF's association, looking up the NAF networks, find out what they're about. This upcoming executive exchange that Matt was talking about here in the podcast. Um, anything else that you wanted to leave our uh listeners with, or especially people interested in the NAF?

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Not only do we have that executive exchange, but we have some of our compliance workshops, um, compliance champions workshops coming up in October as well, uh here in the DFW area. So definitely register for those, but you know, become a member. Um join a community that that really wants to give back to this whole space. We really got to grow together, we gotta adapt together, um, innovate together, stay ahead of everything that we can, because if not, it will be big tough markets and big major headlines, and we'll all hurt. Um, we've taken some hits recently, you know, over the last 12 months as an industry. So, how can we stay together? How can we stay ahead? Um, you know, and that's that's really important. That's what that what that is what NAF is here to uh to bring us, which is you know, keep us connected um and um learning.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

This is great. And folks who are listening who aren't members, definitely check it out. And those who are listening who are members, you know, definitely spread the word. Um Matt's got some ideas, and obviously the NAF is trying to build out these networks to work with you folks. Um, like he said, not just the once a year, but multi-times a year. So check out again those compliance seminars as well. Uh Matt Burke from uh Agora Data, Center Street Um Finance, and of course uh NAF. Thanks a lot for joining us on the Used Car News Podcast.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

Thanks a lot, Jeff.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

Thanks for listening to Used Car News Podcast. Each month, we'll bring you fast and reliable news that car dealers can rely on for this evolving industry. For a free subscription to Used Car News, please go to UsedCarNews.com.