SBS adds U.S. leadership to push wholesale lenders toward AI-ready systems

SBS has named a U.S. leadership team as it expands its wholesale finance platform for floor plan lenders facing rising inventory costs and fragmented legacy systems. The move comes alongside a growing U.S. client base and the launch of SBS AI Foundation, which the company is building into its products.

Why it matters: - Wholesale lenders are under pressure from higher floor plan costs and slower inventory turnover. - SBS is targeting a core pain point: disconnected systems that make portfolio oversight manual, slow and difficult to scale. - The platform is being positioned as the data layer lenders need to support future AI use without sacrificing compliance or risk controls.

What happened: - SBS appointed Ron Spratt as senior vice president to lead U.S. expansion among floor plan lenders. - SBS also added Leigh Revis and Zak Gordon to its U.S. team. - The expansion comes as SBS grows its U.S. client base, including Dealer Financial, a floor plan lender serving independent dealerships in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. - SBS made the announcement on Sept. 10, 2026, in New York.

The details: - SBS's wholesale finance platform powers operations for auto finance companies including Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Toyota FS and Volvo. - Net floor plan expense per vehicle rose 39% in Q2 2025, driven in part by vehicles sitting on lots longer and by higher interest rates. - Many lenders still use separate systems for loan origination, dealer onboarding, inventory management and audits. - That setup forces teams to track and reconcile data manually across platforms. - SBS says its platform replaces those tools with one connected infrastructure that gives lenders a complete view of their portfolio. - The platform includes digital audit tools that replace paper-based inventory inspections with real-time audits. - SBS says the system can scale across large manufacturer-backed lenders and smaller regional lenders without separate implementations. - SBS recently launched SBS AI Foundation, which is being built into all SBS products, including wholesale finance tools.

Between the lines: - Ron Spratt said many wholesale finance lenders are still running on legacy systems that the rest of financial services moved away from years ago. - Spratt said siloed data and manual audits make AI ineffective until lenders modernize. - Adam Tait, head of specialized finance at SBS, said the U.S. is one of the company’s most strategically important wholesale finance markets. - The leadership hires suggest SBS is moving to compete more aggressively for U.S. lenders that want modernization but cannot afford major disruption.

What's next: - SBS will use the new U.S. team to expand further among floor plan lenders. - The company expects its AI Foundation rollout to accelerate innovation and growth across its product line. - More U.S. lenders may adopt SBS's platform as pressure rises to reduce manual work and improve portfolio monitoring.

The bottom line: - SBS is betting that wholesale lenders will choose systems that unify operations now so they can adopt AI later.