Macquarie Group is in the process of hiring 400 staff to work in its expanded motor vehicle finance business, which has more than doubled in size since Macquarie acquired ANZ's Esanda dealer finance portfolio last year.The A$8.2 billion deal was announced in October and acquisition of the retail portfolio was completed in November. Migration of 310,000 customer contracts is underway and will be completed in the first quarter of Macquarie 2016/17 financial year (the June quarter).Macquarie started taking over the dealer finance side of the business in December and expects to complete that transition in the June quarter as well.The head of the motor vehicle finance division at Macquarie, Jon Moodie, said the Esanda deal would make Macquarie one of the top three vehicle finance providers in Australia. Total customer numbers have risen to 625,000, with the retail portfolio worth $15.3 billion. It is financing 267 dealerships, with the "floorplan" portfolio worth $1.9 billion.Speaking at an investor briefing yesterday, Moodie said Macquarie was making investments in IT to ensure it got scale benefits from the acquisition. Its distribution strategy would include some new "digital initiatives". "Esanda is a step change for us and it is all on track," he said.Macquarie has been in the motor vehicle finance market since the 1990s but it was only after it acquired the Ford Credit and GMAC portfolios in the aftermath of the financial crisis that it became a big player.It launched a motor vehicle finance business in the United Kingdom in 2014 and last year acquired Advantage Funding in that market.