First Investors Financial Services issued 2013’s most recent securitization Friday, a $187 million subprime auto transaction. Wells Fargo managed the privately placed deal, which was First Investors’ fifth securitization since January 2011.
Proceeds will pay down the amount of borrowings outstanding under First Investors’ warehouse credit facility to allow room for growth in the portfolio of receivables held for investment.
Houston-based First Investors lends to consumers with less-than-stellar credit. It also purchases receivables through portfolio acquisitions or from third party originators, and performs third-party loan servicing for unaffiliated clients.
In my mind it is mostly dependent on whether or not OEMs refrain from “push marketing” and excessive fleet sales. Subvented short term RBF (residual based financing) is a great way to generate high quality pre-owned vehicles and shorten the trading cycle to sell more new vehicles. This is much preferable to retail rebates and even dealer “trunk money.” It’s much better to subvent a short term RBF than to be perceived as paying folks to take vehicles off their hands.