Ally Financial Inc. is attracting more business from Ford and Lincoln dealerships plus from other brands, part of ongoing efforts to diversify its customer base, according to Ally CEO Jeffrey “J.B.” Brown.
“That’s where we’re making a lot of great progress,” he said at the Morgan Stanley U.S. Financials Conference last week. In answer to an informal poll at the conference, analysts said they would like to see a “stronger mix of non-GM business” at Ally.
Brown said the Ford and Lincoln brands accounted for 22% — or $594 million — of non-General Motors and non-Chrysler originations in the first quarter. Ally refers to non-GM and non-Chrysler business as its “growth” channel. The company said Ford and Lincoln originations were up 60% year over year. On a dollar basis, first-quarter 2014 growth originations were $371 million, or about 21% of the total.
Though incentivized loans and leases once accounted for the vast majority of Ally originations, Brown said this week that incentivized loans for GM have dropped to about 5% of Ally’s originations. Last quarter, Ally reported originations of $2.7 billion for non-GM and non-Chrysler dealerships, an increase of 54% from a year ago. Ally’s growth channel accounted for 28% of total originations in the first quarter, up from 20% a year ago. Ally said it had 10,400 growth dealerships signed up in the first quarter, vs. 9,500 a year ago.