Tag Archives: auto loan portfolio buyers
BB&T-SunTrust merger puts Truist Bank among top-20 auto financiers
With the BB&T Bank–SunTrust Bank merger complete, the combined auto finance business of newly minted Truist Bank creates a $16.7 billion operation that propels the once-regional lenders among the top-20 auto financiers.
Yet, it could take as long as two years to complete the system integration, Truist announced today in a press release. To that end, customers may not experience the transition to the “full Truist experience” until 2021.
With the finalized merger, Truist has a seat at the table with the nation’s largest auto financiers, including TD Auto Finance, USAA Federal Savings Bank and Southeast Toyota Finance. Moving forward, SunTrust and BB&T executives are working to build the Truist leadership team for the auto finance side of the business.
Taking the helm of the prime business is Chief Operating Officer Chuck Jones, who leads the legacy SunTrust Dealer Financial Services and legacy BB&T Dealer Finance teams for Truist Bank, Jones told Auto Finance News. The prime auto finance business consolidates SunTrust Bank’s legacy auto business and BB&T’s prime portfolio, he said.
SunTrust’s prime and super-prime business combined with BB&T’s mostly subprime subsidiary Regional Acceptance Corp. “will operate very successfully to cover the full spectrum,” Jones said.
Truist Bank did not respond to request for comment by press time.
For more content like this, join us at the upcoming Auto Finance Accelerate event, March 9-11 at the Omni San Diego. Combining three crucial topics in auto lending and leasing, Auto Finance Accelerate dives into the strategies and knowledge needed to enhance your company’s auto finance sales, marketing, and innovation. Register before Friday, January 31st to save with early registration rates. Visit www.AutoFinanceAccelerate.com to learn more.
Applications open for the 2020 DEMOvation Challenge
Bloom’s CEO Jesse Leimgruber (left), stands with Auto Finance News CEO JJ Hornblass at the 3rd annual DEMOvation Challenge at Omni San Diego.
Auto Finance News is excited to announce that applications are open for the 2020 DEMOvation Challenge, which will take place at the Auto Finance Innovation Summit on March 10-11 at the Omni San Diego.
The 4th annual DEMOvation Challenge offers startups 5-years-old or younger the opportunity to showcase their technology in front of a wide audience of auto lending and leasing executives during the two-day innovation event.
Technology startups with an eye toward auto finance are invited to fill out this short survey to be considered by the Auto Finance News editorial team for a DEMOvation slot. Startups are required to present a live demo at the event.
Past winners include Bloom, a decentralized data security solution powered by blockchain, and used-leasing app Fair.
The Auto Finance Innovation Summit is part of Auto Finance Accelerate, a three-day event that includes the Auto Finance Sales & Marketing Summit, and dives into the strategies and knowledge needed to enhance your company’s auto finance sales, marketing, and innovation. Register before Friday, January 31st to save with early registration rates. Visit www.AutoFinanceAccelerate.com to learn more.
9th person pleads guilty to scamming Ford Credit in Reagor-Dykes case
The executive assistant for former Reagor-Dykes Chief Financial Officer Shane Smith is the 9th employee to plead guilty for her role in the dealership group’s floorplan fraud scheme against Ford Motor Credit, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.
FBI investigations reveal that Ashley Nicole Dunn, Smith’s executive assistant, has admitted that she was one of the co-conspirators that falsely inflated the daily balances of the dealership’s bank accounts.
So far, nine employees have admitted to their roles in covering the dealership’s “double flooring” scheme, in which Smith instructed staff to artificially inflate the company’s bank account balance by cross-depositing insufficient checks, according to court documents. Vendor and payroll checks that should have bounced were instead cleared during the time between the deposit in the recipient account and the deduction from the payer’s account.
Reagor-Dykes employees who have pleaded throughout the year guilty include:
- Ashley Nicole Dunn, executive assistant to the CFO
- Brad William Fansler, RDAG group administrative director
- Paige Anna Johnston, office manager for the Reagor-Dykes location in Floydada, Texas
- Sheila Evans Miller, RDAG group controller
- Pepper Laray Rickman, accounting controller at Reagor-Dykes Plainview
- Shane Andrew Smith, chief financial officer
- Diana Herrera Urias, office manager
- Lindsay Clare Williams, group accounting manager
- Sherri Lynn Wood, office manager of Reagor-Dykes Plainview
The trio of executives at the helm of the Texas-based dealership group have been ordered to shell out a combined $162.4 million in restitution, including Chief Executive Bart Reagor, Co-Owner Rick Dykes, and Smith. Smith is the only one of the three executives that has pleaded guilty in the case; his sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 7, 2020, and he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Ford Credit sued Reagor-Dykes Auto Group in August 2018, and the dealership chain subsequently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Ford Credit served as the floorplan lender to six of Reagor-Dykes’ 13 locations across Texas. GM Financial was the floorplan lender to one dealership location in Snyder, Texas. Other lenders involved include First Capital Bank, First Bank & Trust, AIM Bank and Vista Bank. A total of 19 banks were victimized by the dealership group.
Reagor-Dykes is also awaiting approval on a proposed $14 million restructuring plan submitted to the court on June 29. However, GMF recently filed a motion urging the court to reject the restructuring plan.
For more content like this, join us at the upcoming Auto Finance Accelerate event, March 9-11 at the Omni San Diego. Combining three crucial topics in auto lending and leasing, Auto Finance Accelerate dives into the strategies and knowledge needed to enhance your company’s auto finance sales, marketing, and innovation. Register before Friday, January 31st to save with early registration rates. Visit www.AutoFinanceAccelerate.com to learn more.
Vroom scores $254M in funding
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Volvo subscription service eyes growth with FICO alliance
Volvo Car Financial Services’ subscription model, Care by Volvo, is making an effort to increase its volume of users via a partnership with Fico’s Decision Modeler.
Care by Volvo, which operates in Germany and the U.S. — except New York — is looking to scale the subscription service across Europe and North America, the company noted. Volvo initially used online credit reference checks to onboard new customers to the subscription service during its pilot phase, which began in 2017. With Fico’s tool, Volvo is able to manage the “rules” behind its underwriting process and organize consumer data based on Volvo’s preferences, according to Fico’s website.
A number of OEMs — including BMW USA and Hyundai Motor Co. — have explored subscription services as a more flexible lease. Care by Volvo’s monthly payment, which includes a brand-new Volvo and covers all service and maintenance costs, starts at $700.
However, these services have come into question as being too costly for affordability-focused consumers. For example, in September Ford Motor Credit sold its subscription service, Canvas, portfolio to Fair. Also, at yearend 2018, General Motors Co. hit the pause button on subscription service Book by Cadillac, after launching two years prior in Los Angeles, Dallas, and New York.
For more content like this, join us at the upcoming Auto Finance Accelerate event, March 9-11 at the Omni San Diego. Combining three crucial topics in auto lending and leasing, Auto Finance Accelerate dives into the strategies and knowledge needed to enhance your company’s auto finance sales, marketing, and innovation. Register before Friday, January 31st to save with early registration rates. Visit www.AutoFinanceAccelerate.com to learn more.
Ally’s Doug Timmerman named Auto Finance Executive of the Year
Auto Finance News is pleased to announce Doug Timmerman, Ally Financial’s president of auto, as the inaugural Auto Finance Executive of the Year. Timmerman first joined Ally — then General Motors Acceptance Co. — back in 1986 and is now at the helm of a $80 billion auto portfolio.
Under Timmerman’s leadership, Ally broke a company record in the second quarter when used-car originations hit $5.24 billion. Overall originations continue to climb as well, increasing 14% year over year to $9.3 billion in the third quarter.
The Auto Finance Executive of the Year is chosen based on nominations by members of the industry and the senior editorial team at Auto Finance News. Executives are considered based on experience, leadership, vision and ability to shake up the industry with an innovative, forward-thinking approach to auto finance.
Ian Anderson, group president at Westlake Financial, and Charles “Chuck” Jones, head of national indirect lending at SunTrust Bank, were selected as Executives to Watch for 2020.
Read the full story — and more — in the December issue of Auto Finance News.
Westlake president outlines strategy to cut costs
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The ripple effect: Distressed repo industry threatens lender losses
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Data breaches: What to do when it happens to you
Friday at 5:15 p.m. your chief information officer calls saying she thinks the company has been hacked. The allegedly hacked customer records have not been posted, yet the tip appears legitimate. The CIO asks: “What do we do?”
Scenarios like this are increasingly common, and the reputational, regulatory and operational effects can be devastating. Your response should be swift and focused, and it should include:
MOBILIZATION: Responding to a data breach will involve resources from across your company’s functional groups — IT, HR, legal, risk, accounting, marketing — and from the C-suite to the affected line of business, as well as external resources such as breach counsel, forensic investigators, crisis management and PR teams, and notification mail processors. You should have a response plan in place before the incident, and you should mobilize your team immediately.
Many of the issues you face next will have civil and regulatory implications, and your discussions should have the benefit of legal privilege. You should consider engaging breach counsel first.
STABILIZATION: The first step in getting control of your data postincident is to patch whatever leak you may have. Your technical team should lock down any stolen or misused credentials, devices or system vulnerabilities and preserve evidence.
INVESTIGATION: Once the technical vulnerabilities have been addressed, identify the scope and duration of the incident; use outside forensic examiners, if necessary. At the same time, review contracts with any implicated third-party service providers, and identify applicable responsive insurance.
ANALYSIS: Data breaches are addressed primarily as a matter of state law, with every state defining and prescribing responses to a breach differently. You may also have obligations related to data breaches under contracts with your commercial vendors or suppliers. Understanding your responsibilities — to customers, regulators, counterparties and investors — turns heavily on the language of the data breach statutes in each implicated state, and the language of your contracts. Which states are implicated is largely determined by the location of your customers and your business operations. Whether your counterparties must be involved is determined by the language of your agreements. This is a highly fact-specific, largely “legal” analysis.
NOTIFICATION: Once you have identified the “what,” “how” and “who,” it’s time to notify your external stakeholders. This may involve notifying customers, contractual counterparties and investors, and will most-assuredly involve notifying state attorneys general. Notification requirements differ by state, both as to timing and substance. The timing for most statutes runs from knowledge of the breach, and may be as short as 24 hours.
EVOLUTION: To the extent there is a benefit to a data breach, it lies in identifying the facts and circumstances that led to the breach and using them to anticipate future threats and improve your systems and practices.
Chris Couch is a member (partner) in McGlinchey Stafford’s Birmingham, Ala., office and a Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP-US). Chris can be reached at ccouch@mcglinchey.com or (205) 725-6404. McGlinchey Stafford is the Compliance Partner of Auto Finance Excellence (AutoFinanceExcellence.org), a sister service of Auto Finance News.