Hyundai Capital Services, the nation’s largest finance house, has placed top priority on improving customer services in a move that is setting it apart from others in overseas financial markets, the latest industry data showed.

In 2013, its U.S. arm Hyundai Capital America was ranked No. 1 in terms of customer satisfaction in the field of retail finance, according to a survey by global marketing research company J.D. Power.

J.D. Power’s retail finance customer satisfaction survey is conducted every year on customers who have purchased a car in the past seven years.

Hyundai Capital America won the top honor with its financing portfolio for Kia Motors, for which it scored 851 points out of 1,000. It beat out other global competitors such as Ford Credit and Toyota Financial Services.

With its portfolio for Hyundai Motor, the firm received 848 points and was ranked third on the list.

“The reason behind such visible customer satisfaction was because we were able to reduce the average credit turn time to nine minutes, down 40 percent from the U.S. average of 15 minutes,” a Hyundai Capital Services spokesman said regarding the results.

“We also renovated our website to provide easier customer access to their account information and financial services.”

A newly added alarm function, which issues warnings ahead of payment dates to keep users out of arrears, also earned favorable reviews, the official added.

In the first half of this year, Hyundai Capital America achieved 262.3 billion won ($250 million) in operating profits, which was almost double that of its head office in Seoul.

Further, the total assets of Hyundai Capital’s overseas offices in the United States, China and the United Kingdom reached 25.8 trillion won as of end-June, exceeding the 22 trillion won of the Korean office.

Based on its strong performance, global credit rating company Standard & Poor’s upgraded Hyundai Capital’s investment grade to BBB+ and its business outlook from stable to positive.

“As a part of Hyundai Motor Group’s integrated marketing framework, Hyundai Capital has proven to be operating a well-balanced business portfolio, and this, in turn, has had a positive impact on overseas investors and credit assessors,” said the Hyundai capital spokesman.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)