Daimler Financial Services has formed a Digital and Mobility Solutions division to help the captive finance arm expand its digital products and platforms globally. It's the latest step in the company's mobility rebranding efforts.
The Digital and Mobility Solutions division, announced Monday, will oversee four digital solution centers in the U.S., China, Germany and Singapore and identify markets in which to roll out products and platforms.
Daimler Financial Services is developing software tools to better engage with consumers, including a messaging chatbot and a mobile app that allows retail and commercial customers to manage their accounts digitally.
"Having a global point of responsibility allows better sharing of information and technology across the digital solutions centers," Daimler Financial Services spokeswoman Mary Beth Halprin told Automotive News. The reorganization "better optimizes our capabilities today, while transforming the way we work and use technology to build the mobility platforms of tomorrow."
Jörg Lamparter will lead the Digital and Mobility Solutions division starting June 1. Lamparter helped spearhead new joint ventures with BMW Group in January, bringing Daimler's mobility products and services — Car2Go, Moovel and Mytaxi — under the newly created company Your Now.
Rodolfo Dominguez, chief digital officer for Mercedes-Benz Financial Services in the U.S., has been promoted to global head of the digital solution centers and chief digital officer for Daimler Financial Services. Dominguez will take over his expanded role June 1 and will report to Lamparter.
Last summer, Daimler Financial said it would rename itself Daimler Mobility in the first half of 2019, underscoring the transformation of the business into a mobility services provider. That name change is now scheduled for July, Halprin said.
Daimler Financial Services on Monday also announced that, effective June 1, Franz Reiner will become its new chairman. Reiner, Mercedes-Benz Bank chairman and head of the Europe Region for Daimler Financial Services, takes over for retiring Chairman Klaus Entenmann.
Benedikt Schell, chief experience officer for Daimler Financial Services, will succeed Reiner as Mercedes-Benz Bank chairman on June 1.
