Sports teams have long been a sponsorship bonanza for marketers, especially financial services companies. Banks have aligned themselves with college football bowl games, car racing, baseball stadiums,…

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Three times a year AutoFinanceNews.net and sister publication Auto Finance News conduct the Auto Finance Forecast, which gauges activities and sentiments in the automotive lending and leasing market. Results will be made public in Auto Finance News, on AutoFinanceNews.net, and at the 2011 Auto Finance Summit, Oct. 26-27.



We invite your…

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One of my favorite lines from "The Social Network" is an exchange between a lawyer and the actor portraying Mark Zuckerberg. The lawyer asks Zuckerberg what he's doing and he replies that he's checking in to see how things are going in Bosnia. 

"Bosnia. They don't have roads. But they have Facebook," the lawyer says. 

I am constantly amazed at what people put up online. Sharing the most mundane details of their lives for just about anyone with an internet connection to read. If…

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With the deadline at week’s end, now’s the time to nominate executives and companies for the 2011 Auto Finance Excellence Awards, which celebrate achievement in the auto lending and leasing arena.



These awards recognize executives or companies that have made the greatest contribution to the auto lending and leasing industry in the past year. The awards will be announced at the Auto Finance Summit 2011 in late October and in Auto Finance… Continue

Consumer Portfolio Services completed the sale to purchase Fireside Bank’s $237 million loan portfolio this week from parent company Kemper Corp. Fireside, which exited the auto business in March 2009, will retain $475 million of previously charged-off loans.

Irvine, Calif.-based subprime lender CPS manages a $1.9 billion portfolio, which consists of about 160,000 accounts. The Fireside acquisition…

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Generation Y customers know what they want, and know how they want it. The demographic, born between the late 1970s and mid-1990s, represents an increasing percentage of the current car-buying population.



By 2012, Gen Y will account for 40% of the car-buying population, according to a study conducted by… Continue

Dealer interest and application flow have been strong at TD Auto Finance, TD Bank President and CEO Bharat Masrani told investors at the Barclays 2011 Global Financial Services Conference in New York today.



TD Auto was formed earlier this year, when TD Bank bought Chrysler Financial from Cerberus Capital Management for $6.3 billion.



Though still in its early months, Masrani… Continue

There's an old urban legend/joke that goes something like: Back in the 1950s, when the U.S. and Russia were racing to see who could get into space first, the U.S. threw tons of money at developing a pen that could be used in zero gravity. The Russians? They used pencils. 

The joke is appropriate in a lot of situations when one is attempting to highlight that the advancements in technology may not always be the most poignant solution. 

Take subprime auto loan underwriting, for…

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Auto Finance News and AutoFinanceNews.net are pleased to welcome Christina Haberstroh as associate editor. She’ll be posting regular blogs to the site and adding critical content to the publication.

Christina joins the team from Greater Media Newspapers, a group of 10 community newspapers in New Jersey. As a reporter for three of Greater Media’s papers, Christina covered local…

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This holiday season might prove to be the best time for consumers to treat themselves to a new ride, as captives prepare to give the gift of incentives.

Kelly Blue Book’s Market Report for September suggests that strong incentives later this year, in the form of cash and attractive lease offerings, may lure customers into dealerships, both foreign and domestic, for new vehicles.

Certainly, there is a…

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Retail giant Wal-Mart announced today that it is bringing back layaway for the holiday season. Customers will be able to pay a small fee and make a down payment, and then have up to two months to pay off the balance of the item in full before being able to take the item out of the store. 

Why am I unable to make a car purchase on layaway? More specifically, why…

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Servicemember Affairs is looking for feedback on consumer financial products and services tailored to service members and their families. The bureau has been gathering information to improve financial education and better protect consumers from abusive lending practices.

“Military families face unique challenges, especially when it comes to their finances,” said…

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Lament the state of the global economy, the U.S. unemployment rate, or the dismal fiscal discipline of many nations within the EU, but the U.S. automotive market remains strong, and that bodes well for auto finance.

Yesterday's Beige Book on regional economic trends from the Federal Reserve delivered a positive anecdotal report from the automotive and auto finance market. The salient…

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Nicholas Financial got a boost in its credit line last week, to $150 million from $140 million. The facility is backed by Bank of America, with participation from Wells Fargo, Capital One, First Horizon National, and the Bank of Montreal.

With the ink barely dry on the Exeter-Blackstone acquisition, and companies seeking access to the subprime market, might Nicholas ― one of the…

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One of my wife's favorite expressions is, "Things happen for a reason."

In her mind, nothing is ever left to chance or coincidence. The universe has a plan and everything that occurs is an extension of that plan. While I may not totally agree with the philosophy, I do think there are a lot of times when that expression happens to be valid. 

Take buying a car, for instance. 

Generally, before someone buys a car, a number of plans and processes are put into place. The…

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