The world of auto finance and Bernard Madoff are colliding again, this time as the trustee in charge of liquidating Madoff’s assets is looking to return six vehicles leased by the disgraced asset manager.
The cars, including a Lexus, Cadillac, Range Rover, and three Mercedes-Benz’s, were leased at various dealerships. Terms of the leases were not disclosed.
Under house arrest, Madoff has little use for the vehicles, according to the trustee, Irving Picard.
While under house arrest, it is doubtful that Madoff has had a chance to catch up with J. Ezra Merkin, a former chairman of GMAC, who ran hedge funds that had invested heavily with Madoff.
I agree with Daniel. This web site is named Bankinnovation.com but the comments are not discussing innovative ways to help customers and financial intermediaries both win. This repo type of conversation has been around for decades.
Is anyone doing any innovative financial help for slow payers such as using the internet to structure their budget, help them follow a budget, get direct payments from income source quicker to the bank, helping the customer understand the consequences on their credit score through simulation, looking to see if they are overwithholding on taxes, contributing too much to a 401K, loooking to see if they can qualify for a payment program on their credit cards, etc, etc. The innovative banks that will do that can develop customer loyalty. Look at the satisfaction polls that are distributed via this web site and ask the question – How satisfied is a customer when you are repoing their car? Based on the stats at the start of the article, 0.77% will never do business with you again if you just repo without a serious desire to remedy the situation. Granted, sometimes there is no alternative but often ther is. Ideas anyone?