Auto lending should support steady sales growth, TransUnion says

Posted on 21. Dec, 2011 by Collections Recon in Collection News, Press Releases

Auto financing should support slow and steady growth in sales through 2012, according to the TransUnion credit bureau.

“It’s not double-digit growth,” said Peter Turek, automotive vice president in TransUnion’s financial services business unit. “But it’s growth.”

U.S. auto sales grew 11 percent last year as the market rebounded from the weakest demand in almost three decades in 2009. This year’s volume was up 10 percent through November.

Chicago-based TransUnion said last week it expects auto delinquencies next year to remain at or near today’s record low levels, and that’s a green light for auto lending.

TransUnion predicted that the percentage of auto loans that are delinquent 60 days or more will remain at about 0.51 percent by the end of 2012, give or take some seasonal fluctuations during the year. Auto loan delinquencies peaked at 0.86 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, TransUnion said.

Delinquencies are down since then in part because the economy improved and consumers are better able to pay. In addition, auto lenders tightened their standards during the recession, so newer loans on the books are performing better, Turek said.

Lenders have stayed conservative in approving loans even though the recession is over. All this year dealers have complained that approvals continue to be difficult, especially for subprime customers.

He said lenders today are better at matching individual borrowers to a particular piece of “collateral.” That’s how lenders have to think of a vehicle, as an asset that may have to be resold if a loan goes bad.

“The lenders are smarter around collateral risk, and they’re smarter around consumer credit risk,” Turek said. “Today, they are not going to put a college kid in a luxury car.”
You can reach Jim Henry at autonews@crain.com.

Jim Henry
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Tags: auto lending, sales growth, transunion