Ally Financial Inc. plans to finance more commercial sales to small fleets, seek new OEM partners, and cross-sell Ally Bank customers in 2016, said Chief Executive Jeffrey Brown.
Those actions are on top of a long-term goal to increase used vehicle financing, subprime, and retail and wholesale volume with non-General Motors and non-Chrysler dealers.
“We’ve been able to diversify and expand the business across products, dealer channels, and even the credit spectrum to some degree, which I think puts us on a much more solid foundation going forward,” Brown said Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services Conference in New York.
Diversification is part prudence, part necessity for Ally. GM phased out Ally’s access to GM lease incentives this year,
in favor of General Motors Financial Co. A preferred-lender relationship between Ally and FCA U.S. LLC, the former Chrysler Group, expired in April 2013. Chrysler shifted its incentives then to Chrysler Capital, a program where Santander Consumer USA provides private-label auto financing.
Brown said Ally lost a “huge” amount of subvented GM business this year. Subvented GM loans and leases accounted for 6% of Ally originations in the third quarter, down from 15% a year ago, Ally reported on Oct. 29.
However, Ally compensated with higher volume in other channels, Brown said this week. Besides what Ally calls its “growth” channel — used-vehicle financing for all brands, plus loans and leases for dealers with no GM or Chrysler franchises — Ally continues to originate standard-rate financing for GM and Chrysler dealers.
Brown said Ally is “open” to new partnerships. In April, Ally signed up as the preferred lender for Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc., and in May added the Aston Martin Americas unit.
