LAS VEGAS — Santander Consumer USA is more than seven times as large as it was five years ago, in large part because SCUSA partnered up with FCA U.S. LLC, the former Chrysler Group. But SCUSA, which refers to itself by the ticker symbol SC, also has other relationships and it is in the market for more, said Rich Morrin, executive vice president of new business.
Through its direct lending product RoadLoans.com, SC also has preferred-lender relationships with online marketers CarMax, AutoTrader, cars.com, and eBay Motors. “With each of these partners we were able to secure a preferred-lender arrangement within their existing customer engagement process,” Morrin said in a presentation at the Auto Finance Summit here on Oct. 22.
SC and Chrysler announced the formation of Chrysler Capital in 2013. The private-label partnership began as a much more limited venture, Morrin said. “A few years ago, Chrysler Group — as it was called back then — was looking for a way to sell more new cars to nonprime customers. But they wanted more than simply a pass-through program. They were looking to move certain vehicle makes and models within a certain window of time,” he said.
In five years, SC had grown to an outstanding balance of $38.4 billion, almost 2.2 million active accounts, a mix of 64% new vehicles, and an average FICO score of 626 as of July 2015. The comparable figures were $5 billion, 358,000 accounts, a mix of 15% new, and an average score of 532 as of July 2010, Morrin said.
