captive finance company
- noun
- /ˈkæptɪv ˈfaɪnæns ˈkʌmpəni/
- Specialized
:
empresa financiera cautiva
- The car dealer arranged my loan through the manufacturer's captive finance company.
Examples
-
Many electronics brands operate a captive finance company to help customers purchase their products on credit.
-
Many car manufacturers have a captive finance company.
-
The captive finance company offers better loan terms than independent lenders in some cases.
-
The captive finance company offers loans to customers.
-
Many electronics brands operate a captive finance company to help customers purchase their products on credit.
-
The captive finance company offers better loan terms than independent lenders in some cases.
-
The car dealer arranged my loan through the manufacturer's captive finance company.
Synonyms
5
3.5
A business that lends money to people or small businesses
Surface Forms
Morphology
The parts 'finance' and 'company' clearly indicate a business that provides funds, and the adjective 'captive' can be understood as 'owned/controlled' rather than literal imprisonment, so a learner could infer a company tied to another organization. However, the precise commercial sense — a finance firm operated by a manufacturer specifically to fund purchases of that manufacturer's products — is technical jargon and not fully predictable from everyday senses, making it only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Captive finance company comes from the image of a loan company that is captive, meaning 'kept' by a product maker to help sell its goods. Because the finance company is 'owned' by the manufacturer and mainly gives loans for that maker's products, the phrase means a lender run by the maker to help people buy its products.