First-quarter bank earnings highlighted mixed results as some banks saw an uptick in auto originations and leasing volume, while credit performance largely improved.  

Ally Financial’s auto originations increased 4.1% year over year as lease originations were up 28.6% YoY. The bank’s retail auto delinquencies declined 9 basis points (bps) YoY to 3.79%. 

Across the regional banks, Huntington Bank’s auto originations rose 25% YoY, while U.S. Bank’s indirect loan and lease originations were down 27.3% YoY. 

Fifth Third Bank, PNC Financial and Truist joined several auto lenders in reporting declines in delinquencies and credit losses in Q1. 

Meanwhile, new-vehicle affordability hit the best level in 45 months in March but auto tariffs are expected to lead to price increases and contribute to lower sales in the coming months.  

Prolonged tariffs are also projected to contribute to a decline in auto asset-backed securitization volume and increased delinquencies across securitized auto loans. 

In this episode of “Weekly Wrap,” Auto Finance News Editor Amanda Harris and associate editor Aidan Bush discuss Q1 bank earnings and top trends across affordability and consumer health for the week ended April 18. 

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Auto Finance Summit East 2025 is set for May 12-14 at the JW Marriott Nashville featuring fireside chats with Santander Consumer USA and Chase Auto. Visit autofinance.live for more information.

Editor’s note: This transcript has been generated by software and is being presented as is. Some transcription errors may remain. 

Aidan Bush 0:22
Hello everyone and welcome to the road map from auto Finance News, the nation’s leading newsletter on automotive lending and leasing since 1996.
Today is Monday, April 21st. I’m Aidan Bush, joined by Amanda Harris. This is your weekly wrap up of key developments in auto finance for the week ending April 18, 2025. More banks reported their first quarter earnings this week, showing mixed results. Overall, some banks rose in origination and leasing volume and credit performance largely improved. One major bank ally, financial, mirrored these results. For more on that, I’ll hand it over to Amanda, who covered Ally’s earnings in depth.Amanda Harris 1:01 Great. Thank you, Aidan. Yes. So Ally Financial did have their originations on their auto book go up to $10.2 billion, which is up just 4%, just over 4%. Excuse me from last year, lease originations grew about 28.6% year over year. Might be seeing a bit of a trend. Chase Auto also saw about a 20% uptick year over year in leasing volume in the first quarter. So we’ll definitely keep an eye, but it seems like leasing is definitely picking up. Ally chief executive Michael Rhodes. Also said on the earnings call that he expects origination mix to shift and they saw retail origination up from last year, but was down from Q4. Ally also saw a record 3.8 million auto accredit applications come in during the quarter. That’s really good showing. There’s lots of demand and then credit performance was strong, delinquencies fell. Auto net charge us also decreased. We’re seeing that a lot mostly across most of the banks that reported as well. And Ally’s chief financial. Attributed those declines and delinquencies to improved payment activity and underwriting strategy, so they’re seeing more customers improve on their payments that they are making.
So they might become delinquent, but they are making those payments and at least staying trying to get back current and not going into those next delinquency buckets or into losses. So we’ll kind of see how that holds up, especially given everything in the market. On the commercial side, Ally’s Floorplan outstandings were down just about 12% from last year. That’s another area we’re going to have to watch, especially as dealers really are mindful of their inventory levels pre tariffs and we’ll kind of have to see how that plays out from an inventory and supply chain perspective down the road and how that plays out on their floor. Books all right. But that is all from me, Aidan. So what else should we be watching? Aidan Bush 2:52
Yeah. So many other kind of regional banks also reported their quarter one earnings including Huntington. So we can start there. Huntington Bank, which is headquartered in Columbus, OH, saw its auto originations climb from last year, right in line with Ally Financial. However, its credit performance was more mixed. So both net charge offs and their payments that were due for more than 30 days actually rose from last year. In contrast, U.S. banks, indirect loan and lease originations which mainly. Include auto. Uh fell about 27.3% from last year. It’s sorry, it’s net charge off ratio also rose slightly and there’s several other regional banks including truist and 5th, 3rd, who also reported their earnings in the past week. Both of these banks saw credit losses dip down from last year. Then kind of stepping away from earnings, April auto tariffs have continued to impact the industry. Tariffs may contribute to a decline. In auto securitization issuance. So Deutsche Bank actually lowered its auto asset back securitization volume forecast in line with a decrease in its new vehicle sales forecast, mainly amid tariff induced price hikes and supply chain disruptions. Data from JP Morgan Securities last week also showed auto asset backed. Sorry, auto asset backed securitization volume was still down year over year in April.
Lenders also worry that price increases may cause higher delinquencies and longer term loans, resulting in higher losses across asset backed securitization transactions. Automaker Ford already announced it would raise prices this summer if the tariff stayed in place. In the short term, though, tariffs and larger market uncertainty have brought this pull ahead effect. So increased demand for vehicles before those prices rise could support used vehicle sales and values, contributing to higher recovery values in the short term that will benefit losses across those ABS transactions on the consumer end, March was met with higher incomes, lower interest rates and lower new vehicle. Prices contributing to the best new vehicle affordability in 45 months. According to Cox, Automotive data used vehicle sales also climbed just over 12% from last year due to seasonal tax refunds and tariff headwinds, and inventory fell as a result. That just about wraps up this week’s episode. Thank you again for joining us on the road map. Follow us on X and LinkedIn and visit Autofinance News net for the latest updates. We’ll see you next time.