F&I and Showroom, January 2016

www fi magazine com 10 F I and Showroom January 2016 DEVELOPMENTS Former Ford fleet sales executive John Felice has joined Motormindz as a senior partner of the global automotive professional services company Felice who retired less than a year ago as Fords vice president of marketing sales and service served in various roles during his more than 30 year career with the automaker He now joins a company that helps facilitate the development of automotive technology and includes former automotive executives such as Ray Fisher who served as vice president of fleet and remarketing for Chrysler Group and Don Johnson who served in various executive roles at General Motors Volkswagen Group of America Inc has named Horst Meima 47 president and CEO of VW Credit Inc Meima will oversee all functions of VW Credit the captive finance company which services Volkswagen Audi and Ducati customers authorized dealers and their affiliated stores as Volkswagen Credit and Audi Financial Services He will also serve as chairman of the board for VW Credit Canada Inc Huntington Bank appointed Tom Wirth to the position of auto finance product and strategy director He will lead a team of 40 colleagues across product strategy underwriting and risk management Wirth most recently served as senior vice president indirect line of business manager and national retail executive at U S Bank where he spent the last 16 years helping the bank grow its auto finance assets to 25 billion The executive also spent time with Bank One Credit Co in Milwaukee Wis Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc has named Ismail Dawood CFO The companys interim CFO Jennifer Davis will now serve as deputy CFO according to officials Before joining the company Dawood served as executive vice president and CFO of the Investment Services Division of The Bank of New York Mellon Corp Moves and Hires AVERAGE AUTO BALANCES TO RISE IN 2016 I n its 2016 auto loan forecast released in mid December TransUnion said it expects delinquencies to remain flat this year at 111 Since they peaked in the fourth quarter 2009 the firm noted delinquencies have declined 28 The firm also said it expects average auto loan debt per borrower to increase from 17985 in the fourth quarter 2015 to 18509 in the fourth quarter 2016 At that level the average will have grown more than 1000 over the past two years and more than 3500 since the fourth quarter 2009 CFPB FINES CARHOP 64 MILLION T he Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Minnesota based CarHop and its affiliated financing company Universal Acceptance Corp to pay 64 million for inaccurately reporting information for more than 84000 consumer accounts to credit reporting agencies According to the regulator the buy here pay here chain and its affiliate violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Act by furnishing information it knew or had reason to believe was inaccurate from about January 2009 to September 2013 In a statement posted on the companys website CarHop officials said the firm settled the CFPBs charges without admitting fault noting that the regulator did not find that any consumer is entitled to damages OHIO DEALERS SETTLE DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING CHARGES M assillon Ohio based Progressive Chevrolet and Progressive Motors Inc have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission FTC charges that they violated the FTC Act and the Consumer Leasing Acts Regulation M by promoting low lease payments in advertisements without disclosing key terms of the offer The proposed settlement order will remain in effect for 20 years and prohibits the dealers from advertising misleading lease or finance terms It also requires that they clearly disclose all qualifications or restrictions related to the advertised terms NEW VEHICLE REGISTRATIONS RETURN TO PRE RECESSION LEVELS N ew vehicle registration volumes for light duty vehicles reached the highest point in nine years with more than 17 million new vehicles registered within the United States between Nov 1 2014 and Oct 31 2015 according to Experian Automotive The highest number of new vehicle registrations on record was 174 million in 2006 while the lowest was during the Great Recession when volumes fell to 102 million in 2009 V room the New York startup that aims to change the way vehicles are bought and sold has received approval from the U S Department of Justice to acquire Texas Direct Auto The transaction which the agency approved on Dec 16 brings together the industrys newest online retailer and the firm that pioneered online retailing when it was founded in 2002 Vroom which was founded by former AutoNation executives in 2013 is financing the acquisition through a 95 million Series C round of funding According to officials the two brands will coexist and continue to operate online separately The combined companies will be headquartered in New York and will employ 500 associates They will also operate reconditioning and fulfillment facilities in Dallas Houston and Indianapolis where Vroom is expected to open a new 500000 square foot facility in early 2016 VROOM TO ACQUIRE TEXAS DIRECT AUTO