Carvana, Wells Fargo among car loan share gainers

Though the rankings were shuffled a bit, the same 10 lenders from 2020 led their peers in new-car-loan market share last year, according to Experian data.

In the used-vehicle market, Carvana shot up the leaderboard six slots and 0.64 percentage points of share to 10th with 1.74 percent of that segment's loan volume.

Carvana said its finance receivable originations more than doubled from $3.58 billion to $7.31 billion last year. Its "other" gross profit per unit rose 49 percent to $2,453 last year, which the company attributed in a letter to shareholders to "strong finance execution and the impact of higher industry-wide vehicle prices on average loan size."

Credit Acceptance Corp. fell out of the used-vehicle top 10 based on Experian's data, dropping from ninth to 12th with 1.48 percent of the market, a 0.52-point reduction in share.

The company reported its consumer auto loan volume fell 21 percent in 2021 to 268,730 loans. It said volumes were also down from 2019 levels.

"We believe the significant decline in 2021 unit volume compared to the same periods in 2020 and 2019 was primarily due to low dealer inventories and elevated used vehicle prices, which we believe are primarily due to the downstream impact of supply chain disruptions in the automobile industry," CAC wrote in an earnings news release.

Wells Fargo Auto won in terms of the size of share gained, growing by 1.62 points to control 4.16 percent of the market. It rose from 10th place to 7th, based on Experian's data.

Wells Fargo told investors it wrote $33.9 billion worth of auto loans in 2021, up 49 percent from 2020.

"While auto loan originations have benefited from enhancements we're making to our capabilities, we continue to be cautious about the increase in vehicle prices over the last year or so and have maintained our underwriting standards," Wells Fargo & Co. CEO Charles Scharf wrote in the parent company's annual report.

Chrysler Capital fell the furthest of the top 20 Experian new-vehicle lenders, dropping from sixth to 10th and down 0.95 points to 3.26 percent.

Operator Santander Consumer USA's last earnings report before its purchase by Santander Holdings USA reported Chrysler Capital loan originations were flat at $11.1 billion, down 0.2 percent, for the first nine months of 2021. But this included a third quarter where originations fell 27 percent year over year to $2.8 billion.

Ford Motor Credit lost the greatest amount of share, down 2.07 points to 4.71 percent. It ranked fifth in 2021, down from third in 2020.

Ford Credit said its net U.S. and Canada consumer financing receivables fell 4.8 percent to $55.6 billion, though this amount was still higher than Ford's 2019 levels. It said it had a 48 percent share of Ford nonfleet sales in the U.S., down from 56 percent in 2020.

Toyota Financial Services, Chase Auto Finance and General Motors Financial continued to round out the top 5. They held their respective first-, second- and fourth-place positions despite losing more than 0.5 percentage points of share each.

U.S. Bank had the greatest positive movement in the rankings among the 2021 top 20 new-car lenders, rising from No. 18 to No. 14 and growing by 0.7 points to a 2.24 percent share.

The lender reported its auto loan portfolio rose 26 percent to $24.87 billion during the fourth quarter compared with the previous year.

Experian's top 5 used-vehicle lender rankings held relatively steady, with Capital One Auto Finance, Ally Financial, Wells Fargo Auto and Chase Auto continuing to hold the top four spots in that order, though Chase fell by more than half a point of share.

Chase said its auto loan and lease originations rose 14 percent to $43.6 billion in 2021. However, the company had seen its auto loan business fall in the fourth quarter.

"After several strong quarters, the lack of vehicle supply resulted in a decline in originations to $8.5 billion, down 23% year-on-year," JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon said, according to an earnings call transcript.

Santander Consumer USA rose from sixth to take the fifth-place used-vehicle slot with a 2.59 percent share. It displaced Toyota Financial Services, which fell from fifth to seventh place at 2.48 percent. Santander's last earnings report stated it facilitated $6.1 billion in loans in the first nine months of 2021, up 56 percent.

Other notable changes among the Experian 2021 Top 20 used-vehicle rankings included TitleMax (which ranked No. 19 in 2020) dropping off the list and U.S. Bank joining the list in 18th place with a 0.93 percent share.