Chase Auto CEO talks OEM relationships, AI investment

Chase Auto is eyeing growth through expanded relationships with manufacturers and dealers along with improved customer experiences.

Chase Auto’s go-to-market strategy is defined as tapping into multiple business lines as part of the JPMorgan Chase ecosystem, Chase Auto Chief Executive Leslie Wims Morris said during a fireside chat at the recent Auto Finance Summit East 2025 in Nashville, Tenn.

[caption id="attachment_58351885" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Auto Finance News Editor Amanda Harris, left, speaks with Chase Auto CEO Leslie Wims Morris at Auto Finance Summit East 2025. (Courtesy/Auto Finance News)[/caption] “We're one of six lines of business; you have our consumer bank, the business bank, our U.S. wealth management business, our credit card business, as well as our home lending business. Within Chase, we have 84 million U.S. households that have some form of a Chase account,” she said.

“A big part of our strategy is how do we support our consumers with innovative lending and auto financing and experiential-type experiences as a customer, but we're also focused on how we leverage our own customer acquisition channels to help our OEM partners and dealers grow .”

[caption id="attachment_58351886" align="alignleft" width="221"] Leslie Wims Morris[/caption] Chase Auto was the fourth-largest lender by outstandings at yearend 2024 with a portfolio of $84.7 billion, according to the latest Big Wheels Rankings data . As of the first quarter this year, the bank’s auto portfolio sat at $87 billion after originations rose 20.2% year over year to $10.7 billion.

“Our top priority is to grow in a responsible way." -- Chase Auto Chief Executive Leslie Wims Morris

“Our top priority is to grow in a responsible way and manage risks and ensure that our customers have the right products, our OEM partners feel supported and that our dealer network is robust and healthy,” Wims Morris said.

She joined Auto Finance News for a one-on-one discussion during the conference. What follows is an edited version of the conversation.

Auto Finance News : How you would you describe the current state of the automotive market, or the “weather?” Leslie Wims Morris : The weather is complicated right now. Last year, we were maniacally focused on what was going to happen in the EV market and what was going to happen with the Inflation Reduction Act. This year, the weather has been dominated with this question of what is going to be the impact of tariffs to our business, and for us, how do we show up for all our clients?

From a macro perspective, JPMorgan Chase has sell-side research analysts who talk to all the major auto OEMs globally, as well as our own teams that have deep relationships with C-suite executives at all our partners. Our analysts, when the tariffs first hit, estimated that the cost to the industry would be $82 billion in the U.S. There has been some relief as it relates to the impact of stacking tariffs, so our revised estimate is $63 billion. It’s still a really big number.

The key question for us is what is going to happen in the market? Someone is going to have to pay for that. Is it going to be the OEM? Is it going to be the consumer? Is it going to be partners such as ourselves? What is going to change from a consumer demand perspective, and how might we have to adapt accordingly? We have to be prepared for every possible outcome. We have done a lot of scenario planning.

AFN : How do you think about the short- and long-term impacts of auto tariffs? WM : We are concerned about what happens if tariffs are temporary. We have a sizable lease book. It’s great that used-car prices are up in the near term, that is net positive for the current book. But a scenario that we all need to be concerned about is if tariffs are in effect for six to 12 months, and then they come back down again, and you have a large lease book. What does that mean from a collateral value perspective?

The other key question that we talk a lot about with all our partners is, are the same tactics that we have traditionally used to sell vehicles still going to be viable? Are you even going to have the budget to offer subvention when we know that was a historical tactic that has been used.

AFN : Chase Auto’s originations rose in Q1. What drove that growth, and do you expect growth to continue this year? WM : Our growth is a story of market share, both in our retail business and in our private label business. Our market share in our private label business exceeds that of what you might typically see with a traditional captive.

Our growth is also driven by continuing to expand the OEMs with whom we do business. You'll start to see us do more creative, unique partnerships that are not traditional, private label partnerships in our book. We're also focused on expanding our credit buy box.

The last ingredient to how we think about growth is in our commercial book. We know that having a deep and healthy dealer network by offering a broad set of capabilities, some of which extend beyond the traditional auto portfolio in terms of products and offerings, is a compelling part of our value and stickiness and health.

We take a through-the-cycle approach to our relationships. We've been there for our partners in good days and in bad. From a dealer perspective, it’s ensuring that our dealers have the right amount of capital to support the growth that’s being required of them. This is a challenging time because the weather is changing so rapidly, but in our industry, we need to make long-term decisions, and that includes the dealer. The last thing we want to do is make a commitment to support a dealer in a particular investment and then back away.

One of the benefits of having a $4 trillion-plus balance sheet as an institution is that it enables us to think holistically about how we support our partners and our dealers.

AFN : Chase Auto provides private label financing for multiple manufacturers, including Aston Martin, Jaguar Land Rover, Maserati, McLaren, Rivian and Subaru. How do you balance the various manufacturer goals and approaches, and where do you see private label relationships headed in the industry? WM: If you look at our portfolio, we work with mass market players, ultra luxury, mass luxury, new entrants and pure play EV manufacturers. Their relative market positions, strategies, product offerings and consumers are different.

Inherent in that complexity and difference, we must approach the problem differently in terms of how we support them. It is an advantage, though, having a wide range of partners in our portfolio because it enables you to have a robust view of how big the problem is, and oftentimes, we get inspiration to apply elements of one strategy to another partner.

There's a lot of opportunity for more private label , or private label-like relationships in this space for a variety of reasons. Setting up a captive is incredibly capital intensive.

If you are in a capital constrained environment where you're needing to build manufacturing capacity, launch EVs, manage a tariff environment and a macroeconomic environment where you must spend more money to sell a vehicle, the idea of tying up balance sheet to lend for OEMs is tough. Newer entrants always want to work with a partner as that's the quickest way to be up and running in the marketplace. You might start to see some relationships that might not necessarily be private label but have elements of strategic partnerships.

To support consumer demand, you must have enough capital in the ecosystem to meet the collective ambition of all the auto OEMs in this space.

AFN : What areas will JPMorgan Chase and Chase Auto invest in looking to the near future? WM : AI is a top priority for JPMorgan Chase at the top of the house. We are going to continue to invest in AI to drive efficiencies within our business. Also from a technology perspective, from the lens of a consumer, we're investing a lot in digitalization.

We have a lot of customers who live in the Chase Mobile App, and it's a digital experience, and we want them to be able to get access to auto loan preapprovals and be able to shop for vehicles if they happen to be within the four walls of our ecosystem.

We've also been on a tech modernization journey for the last few years, with the intent of being able to come to market faster with new features and functionality.

Find more coverage from Auto Finance Summit East 2025 here.

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