Auto ABS Volume Closes In on $60B

Year-to-date auto securitization volume hit $57.8 billion at the end of April, with prime loan issuance accounting for the lion’s share of transactions, according to research released today by Deutsche Bank. Prime loan securitization volume totaled $23.7 billion, and subprime volume reached $12.8 billion. The remaining volume was comprised of retail lease ($9.8 billion), fleet […]

• Marcie Belles
• June 5, 2019
• Capital Markets, Credit Performance

Investment Research Firm to Buy Rating Agency DBRS

Investment research firm Morningstar Inc. will acquire credit rating agency DBRS for $669 million, according to the companies. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.    Morningstar has been mostly absent from the public auto-ABS rating space, primarily rating private placement transactions, a company spokeswoman said, without providing details. In the public […]

• Joey Pizzolato
• May 30, 2019
• Operations, Strategy, Update

Loan Losses Are Worse Than Expected at Two Subprime Auto Lenders

Recent subprime-auto bonds from Prestige Financial Corp. and Exeter Finance Corp. are performing worse than anticipated, at a time when many competitors are at least meeting expectations, according to credit raters. The challenges both face may be remnants of a push for rapid growth a few years back, when these smaller lenders temporarily loosened credit […]

• Bloomberg News
• May 2, 2019
• Capital Markets, Credit Performance

Losses on Track to Improve in Santander’s Latest Securitization

Santander Consumer USA‘s first asset-backed securitization of the year is on track for lower losses relative to prior pools, despite higher loan-to-value ratios and a smaller percentage of new vehicles in the pool, according to Moody’s Investors Service. Moody’s assigned a 24% cumulative net loss expectation to the $1.2 billion transaction, which is slated to […]

• Nicole Casperson
• January 11, 2019
• Capital Markets, Operations, Risk, Strategy

Exeter Finance Files for IPO, Expects to Raise $100M

Subprime lender Exeter Finance Corp. filed for an initial public offering to gain a larger marketshare in the “fragmented” auto finance industry, the company said in a Jan. 8 regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Blackstone-backed Exeter expects to raise $100 million in the IPO, the filing notes, though the timing of […]

• Nicole Casperson
• January 10, 2019
• Capital Markets, Credit Performance, Strategy

Exeter Improves Portfolio Performance With Stricter Underwriting

Exeter Finance LLC managed to lower delinquencies and charge-offs in its portfolio by implementing “tighter controls and stricter underwriting,” according to an S&P Global Ratings pre-sale report. Through March, the subprime auto lender’s total delinquencies decreased to 14.55% of the portfolio compared with 15.68% in the same period a year earlier. Similarly, net charge-offs decreased […]

• William Hoffman
• July 23, 2018
• Earnings

MyAutoLoan.com Seeks Growth Via Veteran Execs

Two subprime auto finance veterans have taken an undisclosed equity stake in Horizon Digital Financial Holdings Inc. and plan to sign new lenders to subsidiary MyAutoLoan.com, a digital marketplace lender. Mark Floyd, who previously served as chief executive of Exeter Finance Corp. and chief operating officer of AmeriCredit Corp., will come out of retirement (again) […]

• William Hoffman
• May 29, 2018
• Operations, Strategy

5 Private-Equity Trends to Watch in 2018

In the recovery period following the great recession there was a surge of private-equity investment in the auto finance space, but since then enthusiasm has waned. Several firms are looking for an exit ramp from properties they have sunk billions of dollars into as delinquencies soar. Independent finance companies have been unable to stop delinquencies […]

• William Hoffman
• February 1, 2018
• Capital Markets, Features, Technology