BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Fiserv Inc., a provider of financial services technology solutions, announced this week its automotive loan origination system (LOS) was used by dealers and lenders to process more than 13.6 million credit applications in 2013, an increase of 16.5% over the previous year.

More than 4.6 million contracts were funded on Auto LOS — a 14.3% increase over 2012 — of which nearly 900,000 were electronic contracts (e-contracts). Last year was the first full year that econtracting capabilities were integrated into the company’s end-to-end solution for automotive loan origination.

This substantial volume of credit applications and funded contracts reflects the return to health of the U.S. automotive industry, which registered robust growth in sales and financing for both new and used cars and trucks, officials said. They added that growing adoption of econtracting mirrors the automotive industry’s transition to new technology and digital lending.

“Increasing automobile sales and the recovering economy contributed to the impressive growth of credit applications and contracts supported by our automotive loan origination system,” said Kevin Collins, president of lending solutions with Fiserv. “Captives and their dealers realized the role that technology can play in reducing costs, improving customer satisfaction and facilitating faster decision-making. This led to the impressive volume gains and growing adoption of e-contracting processes.”