Don Hankey

Don Robert Hankey is an American billionaire businessman, the founder of the Hankey Group, which makes most of its income from subprime car loans.

• The little-known king of subprime car loans, Don Hankey presides over the $2.1 billion (sales) Hankey Group, a Los Angeles-based auto services empire.
• His Westlake Financial Services works with more than 28,000 car dealerships in all 50 states to provide car loans to people with bad, or no, credit.
• The Hankey Group also includes a real estate firm and a Toyota dealership, plus auto insurance, rental car and dealer software companies.
• As a teen Hankey worked as a lot boy, washing and polishing cars, and then as a salesman at his father’s Los Angeles Ford dealership.
• In 1972 he bought control of the dealership and began extending loans to people with poor credit. The business took off and is now his biggest asset.