All articles by Richard Irvine-Brown
Richard Irvine-Brown
Ally Q1 results – international and UK up
Results for Ally Financial, parent of finance provider GMAC UK, show a first-quarter profit increase from international car finance while North American car finance has stuttered. Pre-tax profit from International Automotive Finance operations stood at $45m (28m) from January to March 2012, more than double the $21m recorded in the fourth quarter of 2011, and up 45% year-on-year.
No bill for BEN
Motor finance provider The Funding Corporation has agreed to pay its employees for time off work if it is spent helping BEN, the auto industrys national charity or other local good causes The Employee Volunteer Programme entitles each of The Funding Corporations 200-plus staff to one day off each year for charity work. Managing director David Challinor said he expected the company to profit from the experiences of its staff gaining new perspectives in a non-commercial environment.
Daimler penetration passes 40%
Daimler Financial Services is currently financing or leasing more than 40% of all Daimler Group vehicles worldwide, including the Mercedes-Benz and Smart brands, according to global chairman Klaus Entenmann. Entenmann told China Daily at the Beijing Auto Show: There are 2.6m vehicles on the roads worldwide whose owners have benefitted from our services and was convinced the contract volume written by Daimler Financial Services would grow further in the next few years. Daimler Financial Services achieved new records in contract volume, new business and pre-tax, pre-interest earnings in 2011, a year that Entenmann describes as an all-time high of global automotive sales.
Renault revenues down but finance up
Renault Group worldwide automotive revenues for the first quarter of 2012 were down, year-on-year, while revenue from sales financing has risen. Overall Group revenues for the quarter came to 9.54bn (£7.8bn), down 8.6% on the same period last year, while finance revenue from partner RCI Banque contributed 522m to the group, up 12% on Q1 2011. The total value of average outstanding loans was up 9.2% to 24bn, the number of new finance contracts fell by 5.8% to 238,500 for the quarter.
Ford and VW top rent-a-car list
In London, home to a quarter of the cars WhipCar has available for hire, Ford and Volkswagen tie as the most-requested rental marques, each accounting for 11% of the market
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March and Q1 new car boost for brands
Customers seeking the new 12-plate registration in March, typically the busiest month for new car registrations and accounting for 18% of the annual new car market, helped sell 372,835 new units, in contrast to the slump in Europe where sales were down 6.6% for March and 7.3% for the quarter. Beside its position as the pinnacle of business in the new car sales calendar, both big brand dealerships and the SMMT had predicted a rise this March following a slight rise in total new registrations in January and a rise in retail sales, despite the usual overall decline in new sales, in February.
FSA hammers motor finance provider
Three directors of failed subprime lender Cattles and its subsidiary Welcome Financial Services have been banned from the industry by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and fined a total of £700,000 for misleading information regarding the companys loan book. The Yorkshire-based finance provider was also censured for acting without integrity in the years leading up to the collapse of the company by understating default rates.
Seven sentenced for £125k car finance fraud
Two men have been jailed and five handed suspended sentences at Stoke-On-Trent Crown Court on Friday for their involvement in a car finance fraud scheme worth £125,000. Over a three-year period the seven men netted finance worth £104,765 on six vehicles including a Jaguar, a Mercedes-Benz and two Kia 4x4s Two of the seven, Christopher Lea, aged 42, and his stepson Matthew Lea, aged 23, both from Stoke-on-Trent also acquired £19,690 in personal loans obtained using false documents
Moneyway pilots new shortfall loan product
Prime and subprime car finance provider Moneyway is currently piloting its settlement short fall loan scheme with dealerships, providing a loan to cover the negative equity in a car finance deal. David Nield, director of lending at Moneyway parent Secure Trust Bank said the scheme would come in to play when finance companies could not offer a customer the full amount required because of loan-to-value restrictions. Nield said that dealers were often frustrated by declines on finance proposals forfeiting sales, particularly when terms on acceptance dont allow them to do the deal on the customer.
FLA campaigns on car crime
The Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) has launched Car Crime Awareness Week in the UK with campaigns to encourage vehicle history checks and guard against conversion fraud. The FLA is warning consumers one in three used cars has a hidden history and should there be outstanding finance owed on the vehicle, a used car could be repossessed by the finance company which owns it. Deliberately selling on a car with outstanding finance, known as conversion fraud, accounted for almost 40% of all car fraud from October to December 2011, according to the FLA, a 10% increase, year-on-year.