One of my favorite shows growing up was “I Love Lucy.” I'd watch it every day at lunch. In fact, I still watch it almost every day. It's on early in the morning, and many times I'll have it on when my kids wake up in the morning.



They'll come into the living room, ready to watch whatever is on the top of their consciousness (it's currently anything to do with Star Wars), but when they see what I have on, they run into our bedroom, calling out, “Mommy... Daddy is…

Announced today, TransUnion’s Payment Hierarchy study found that consumers were more likely to pay their auto loans before their credit cards and mortgages in 2011. The study also found that the divergence in payment patterns ― where consumers are increasingly apt to pay their credit cards before their mortgages ― has continued for four years straight.

The reasoning? Simply put, “People need their cars to get to work,” Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting for…

According to Bloomberg News, the U.S. Treasury Department is urging Ally Financial to split into at least two pieces, people familiar with the topic told Bloomberg. One part would be Ally’s auto finance unit and the other would be its online bank. Investor Elliott Management Corp. also recommends a sale, according to a letter sent to the board by Elliott and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Treasury officials are telling Ally executives, directors, and financial advisers that an IPO is…

Today’s Deal: Up to 40% off a Brand New Car!

From bungee-jumping to housewares, daily deal sites provide consumers with discounted rates on the activities they’ve dreamed of doing or on the name-brand items they wouldn’t purchase otherwise. CarRush was recently launched in the U.K. with the hopes of saving new car shoppers at least £1,500 ($2,394) and as much as £10,000 ($15,959) if they source their car through the daily deal…

Can the strategies behind the popularity of the “Jersey Shore” and “Teen Mom” help General Motors sell more vehicles? MTVScratch, a unit of Viacom, is hoping so as the consulting group has teamed up with GM to solve a serious problem facing the auto industry: Young customers, the current Millennials, don’t care much about cars.

The news of a five-year plan that Scratch has developed for Chevy was announced last week in…

In the hopes of enhancing the leasing experience for its customers, Toyota Financial Services and Lexus Financial Services announced this week the launch of its new Excess Wear & Use Protection Plan.

EWU aims to simplify the lease-end process by eliminating claims forms, deductibles, and reimbursement requests. The new program will also waive excess wear and use charges that consumers would otherwise be responsible to pay at the end of term.

The program covers items that…

Expanding on the existing preferred retail financing relationship between the two companies, MG Motor UK picked GMAC UK, a subsidiary of Ally Financial, as the preferred wholesale financing provider for its dealerships.

The GMAC sales team is currently making contact with dealers to introduce the wholesale financing program to MG Motor dealers who can obtain wholesale financing from GMAC for new, demonstrator, and used vehicle inventory, the companies said in a press…

I'm fascinated by what motivates people. Understanding how someone arrives at a decision is a particular hobby of mine. It's one of the main reasons that one of my wife's nicknames for me is "But why" ― because I ask so many questions. 

I was listening to a podcast earlier this week and a brother and sister team of economists were talking about the results of a study they had conducted. The study examined a dynamic they called "conspicuous conservation." The idea that drives the…

AUSTIN, Texas -- Uncertainty remains the biggest concern among financial service providers even after Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, addressed a room full of attendees this morning at the Consumer Bankers…

Senior executives from First Investors Financial Services, Huntington Bank, Mitsubishi Motors Credit of America, TD Auto Finance, and Toyota Financial Services are the latest additions to the Auto Finance Risk Summit speaker faculty.

The Auto Finance Risk Summit highlights the central role risk management plays in all functions of auto lending and leasing.

Tom Redding and Vijay Patil, risk managers at First…

Nineteen lenders combined to renew $15 billion worth of funding, in two separate facilities, for Ally Financial Inc. and subsidiary Ally Bank. The capital is earmarked for retail, lease, and dealer floorplan originations in the U.S. and Canada.

Renewal of the credit facilities is “a key part of our diversified funding strategy, and supports Ally's growing auto finance business," said Jeff Brown, Ally's senior executive vice president of finance and corporate planning, in a prepared…

I'm a big believer in chaos theory. You've heard the analogy used to describe chaos theory: a butterfly flaps its wings in China, and in Central Park it starts to rain.

As I see it, one of the primary tenets of chaos theory is connectivity. Everything is connected to everything else. Call it six degrees of separation, call it the facebooking of the world, but I like to believe that if I get up at the same time every morning and follow the same routine, then whatever…

In an effort to support sales for the luxury brand, Buick announced this week a new lease offering aimed to support the brand's mission to  "redefine itself as a modern luxury automaker and leader in customer satisfaction."

The 24-month lease program called Experience Buick is being offered through Ally Financial and  includes routine maintenance, an OnStar Directions and Connections plan and SiriusXM radio, all bundled into the consumer's monthly payment. Experience Buick is…

In a blog posted today, Visible Banking, a social media watch site, highlighted the 10 most active Twitter accounts from the financial services industry. Coming in at No.1 was Santander (Brazil) with 142 tweets in February…

With more than $25 billion of financing at stake, Chrysler’s retail and floorplan business has sparked interest from some of the nation’s largest lenders. Among the contenders are Ally Financial Inc., Chase Auto Finance, GE Capital Corp., Santander Consumer USA, US Bancorp, and Wells Fargo & Co.

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has opened the bidding for two possible scenarios: a captive-type joint venture or a private-label lending arrangement.

Here’s a look at the…

Stepped-up borrowing for cars and schooling drove consumer credit up $17.8 billion in January, according to data from the Federal Reserve. At $2.5 trillion, consumer credit is nearly on par with the pre-recession borrowing level.

Specifically, the Fed-monitored category comprised primarily of auto and student loans increased $20.7 billion ― the biggest jump since November 2011. The gain was offset by a $2.9 billion decline in credit card borrowing.

While economists consider the…

Heading to your favorite fast food joint or coffee shop can help you find a new car with a marketing program Ally Financial has designed to drive more traffic into the showroom.

In the hopes of increasing new-vehicle sales at General Motors and Chrysler dealerships, Ally recently launched The Vehicle Intercept Program, which kicks off in Ft. Myers, Fla.; Washington, D.C.; Houston; and Detroit in the coming weeks.

How does it work? Ally, along with the participating dealership,…

Auto lenders can expect to see more inquiries from repo agents who are using license-plate recognition camera systems to identify wanted vehicles after it was announced that MVCONNECT, the parent of MVTRAC, has agreed to license its technology to Digital Recognition Network (DRN) and Vigilant Video.

The three companies are major players in the LPR space in the recovery industry, and the 18-month legal battle between the parties had kept a lot of repossession agents on the sidelines,…

Six months after being acquired by Blackstone, Exeter Finance Corp. has completed its first-ever securitization ― a $200 million transaction that was privately placed with investors.

The securitization consisted of four tranches, with DBRS ratings ranging from triple-A through double-B, and Standard & Poor’s ratings ranging from double-A through double-B. The weighted average coupon was 3.7%.

Wells Fargo Securities and Deutsche Bank Securities were lead managers on the…

One generation handing the baton off to the next. 

In a meeting laden with generational implications, Fiserv Automotive officials laid out their vision for the future of auto finance technology yesterday, and that vision starkly frames the generational divide. 

"It is going to be a whole different experience for our kids," said Kevin J. Collins, president of Fiserv Lending Solutions, which houses the technology company's auto finance IT operations. 

Even the participants…