Ally Financial's Auto Lending Falls

By Austen Hufford 

Ally Financial Inc. continued to log declines in its auto-lending business but retail deposits rose as the bank continues to diversify its business.

Shares fell 2.8% in light premarket trading.

The Detroit-based lender, formerly General Motors Co.'s financing arm and known as GMAC, is one of the country's biggest auto lenders. Ally has been trying to regain its financial strength since the 2008 crisis, when it had to be bailed out by the U.S. government.

Ally lost a big chunk of its auto-lending business in 2015 when GM largely pushed it out of its lucrative subsidized-leasing business in favor of internal financing. Since then, the lender has grabbed back much of that lost business amid strong U.S. auto sales. Still, in the latest quarter, auto originations slid 16% to $9.3 billion.

Ally attributes the decline to a focus on increasing risk-adjusted returns as yields on the retail portfolio improved.

Meanwhile, Ally has been working to expand its reach beyond retail lending including into wealth management, mortgages and credit cards, and is working to beef up its online-only bank.

During the quarter, retail deposits grew 19% to $63.9 billion as it added 16% more customers.

In all, Ally reported a profit of $209 million, or 43 cents a share, down from $230 million, or 47 cents a share. Excluding certain items, per-share profit rose to 56 cents from 51 cents.

Net financing revenue increased 2.7% to $996 million as total revenue increased 6.3% to $1.38 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had projected 59 cents in adjusted earnings per share on $1.37 billion in total revenue.

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 26, 2016 09:29 ET (13:29 GMT)

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