Westlake Auto Finance Executive Brian Renfro Shares Insights At The 2021 LendIt Fintech Conference

At LendIt Fintech 2021, financial services leaders discussed how Nearshore Mexico could support the expansion of U.S. contact center operations. During a roundtable focused on successfully expanding contact center operations in Mexico, Westlake Financial executive Brian Renfro shared his experience integrating the company's Mexico contact center with its U.S. operations.

• Nearshore Mexico at LendIt Fintech 2021
• Why Westlake Chose Nearshore Mexico
• Performance and Operational Integration
• A Partnership That Continued to Grow
• About Westlake Financial
• About Call Center Services International

Nearshore Mexico at LendIt Fintech 2021

In April 2021, LendIt Fintech brought together executives from the United States and Europe to discuss trends affecting lending and financial services. One of the roundtable discussions focused specifically on Successfully Expanding Your Contact Center Operation Utilizing Nearshore Mexico.

The panel featured Brian Renfro, SVP of Servicing for Westlake Auto Finance at the time. During the conference, Westlake was described as managing more than $10 billion in loans and services, while Renfro was overseeing approximately 1,000 customer service agents across contact center operations in the United States, Mexico, and the Philippines.

Those figures and organizational details reflect Westlake's operations as presented during the 2021 conference. The discussion itself focused on a broader strategic question that remains relevant for financial services organizations: how can a U.S. company expand into Mexico while maintaining the management practices, customer experience, and performance standards of its domestic contact centers?

Why Westlake Chose Nearshore Mexico

During the roundtable, the panel discussed why Mexico could provide advantages compared with other international contact center destinations. Renfro focused on Westlake's experience integrating its Mexico operation with its U.S. contact centers.

"Going to Mexico was the ideal scenario. It felt like home to me. It looked identical to my L.A. office. A call center that has the same time and is managed in the same way.”

— Brian Renfro, SVP of Servicing at the time, Westlake Auto Finance

The discussion highlighted several characteristics associated with Nearshore Contact Center operations in Mexico, including access to a bilingual workforce, geographic proximity to the United States, management accessibility, cultural alignment, and compatible time zones.

For financial services operations, these advantages can make it easier to integrate a Mexico-based team with existing U.S. management, training, servicing, and customer experience processes.

Access to a professional bilingual and bicultural workforce is especially important for organizations serving English- and Spanish-speaking customers while maintaining close alignment with U.S. operating standards.

Performance and Operational Integration

A central theme of Renfro's comments was that successful Nearshore expansion requires more than simply moving positions to another location. The Mexico operation needed the same management attention, employee development, training, and performance expectations applied to Westlake's U.S. centers.

"It's no different from my Texas or L.A. Centers. Performance has been on par with the same metrics as anywhere else. We just need to spend time like we spend time anywhere else, meet the people, do training and all the things that you would do if it were a center across the street."

— Brian Renfro, SVP of Servicing at the time, Westlake Auto Finance

The experience illustrates an important principle of Nearshore operations: geographic expansion does not eliminate the need for strong management. Training, performance measurement, employee engagement, Quality Assurance, leadership involvement, and communication remain essential regardless of where the contact center is located.

For companies in auto finance and lending, an integrated Nearshore operation can support functions such as auto finance customer service and servicing, loan servicing, dealer support, payment follow-up, and collection-related activities.

CCSI's Westlake Financial client history also documents earlier milestones in the relationship, including the launch of Westlake's Nearshore Mexico operation in 2018 and its first-year anniversary in 2019.

A Partnership That Continued to Grow

The 2021 LendIt discussion provides an important snapshot of Westlake's Nearshore strategy at that point in its development. The relationship with CCSI continued to expand in the years that followed.

In December 2024, CCSI documented continued Westlake growth across Mexico, including operations in Tijuana, Guadalajara, and Mexico City. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

The continued growth provides additional historical context to Renfro's comments at LendIt Fintech 2021: the Nearshore operation discussed during the conference developed into a broader multi-location relationship in Mexico.

Historical note: First published in June 2021, this article has been reviewed and updated while preserving Brian Renfro's original comments and the discussion presented during the LendIt Fintech 2021 Nearshore Mexico roundtable. Executive titles, workforce figures, loan portfolio references, contact center locations, and other company statistics associated with the conference reflect information presented at the time. Additional context has been included to document the continued growth of the Westlake and CCSI relationship in Mexico.

Originally published: June 3, 2021
Last reviewed and updated: July 26, 2026