Michelle Krebs, executive analyst at Autotrader, wondered whether Barra's shift to GM Financial will be permanent. "There isn't a president after Dan leaves, so it's not clear if there's more moves to be made," she said. "But the finance part is really important now. They're trying to build up the financial business."
While Jeremy Acevedo, Edmunds' manager of industry analysis, imagines business operations at GM Financial shouldn't alter under new oversight, he said Barra taking the captive under her wing shows a concerted effort to tie in the silos of the massive automaker's operations.
"The optics of having it directly under her, that she's keeping a close eye on it not as a subsidiary of the business but an entity that she's trying to glean profitability from, just like every other avenue that GM has, is positive," Acevedo said. GM Financial "having its place alongside all the other revenue-generating parts of the business can help reconcile the finance arm with all the other marketing and segments that ladder up to her."
In 2014, Ammann said that GM Financial would be integral to GM's growth efforts through 2020, through increasing revenue, market share and customer loyalty.
Meanwhile, affordability challenges and rising interest rates mean that GM should place more focus on the financing arm, according to Krebs.
"We're at a really critical phase of interest rates rising, cost to dealers in terms of interest rising, so that's going to be a really important part of the business going forward," Krebs said. "I would think she wants to pay much closer attention to it."