Huntington Bancshares Inc released its second quarter earnings this week and reported a $3.7 billion increase in total loans, or 9% from the prior year, according to the bank’s SEC filings.
“Commercial and auto remained the primary drivers of our loan growth,” Mac McCullough, chief financial officer said during the bank’s recent earnings call.
Huntington’s auto loan portfolio increased by $2.1 billion, or 39%, from this time last year, and according to McCullough, originations remain strong, with Fico scores in the 765 range.
“With respect to our auto finance business, I want to remind you that the summer months are seasonally strong. On the other hand, the auto floor plan lending side suffers during this period, as dealers liquidate the prior year’s models to make room for the new model year in the fall,” McCullough said. “While our overall utilization rate ticked up modestly in the quarter, our auto floor plan loan utilization rates have been running a couple percentage points below what we would normally expect, but the strong automobile market in general has more than offset this.”
When asked about the possibility of auto securitization by an analyst on the call, chairman, president and chief executive, Steve Steinour didn’t rule out the possibility.
“We have said now for probably a year and a half that we have a concentration limit on auto, and as we continue to grow, we don’t plan, at least at this point, to change that concentration limit. That would take us to loan securitizations, one or more, in 2015,” Steinour said. “We’re viewing the market now and our lending is robust. There is the possibility we could do something the second half of this year.”
