Citizens Financial to end indirect dealership car loan business

Citizens Financial Group will quit writing new indirect auto loans July 1, the company said Wednesday.

Citizens attributed its exit from buying loans arranged by dealerships to a desire to "optimize its balance sheet" and "emphasize relationship-based lending."

“We do not view this as a temporary pause and do not have plans to change this decision at this time,” spokeswoman Michelle King Savio wrote in an email.

The publicly traded bank, which does not write loans directly to customers, said it started to cut its dealership network and "deemphasize" loan volume in the third quarter of 2022.

"As Citizens continues to optimize its balance sheet, this decision further enables us to lend in areas that provide better risk adjusted returns and improved opportunities to deepen relationships with our customers," Citizens consumer lending head Eric J. Schuppenhauer said in a statement. "We greatly appreciate the opportunity to have been the lender of choice for thousands of dealership partners over the years and are thankful for the dedicated team of colleagues that have delivered exceptional service."

Citizens wrote new- and used-vehicle loans to customers with "full prime" credit, king Savio said. It had $11.5 billion worth of auto loans in its portfolio as of March 31, down 6.5 percent from the previous quarter and 20 percent from a year earlier. It said Wednesday it would keep and continue to service its existing loan book.

A few months before Wednesday's announcement, CEO Bruce Van Saun told Reuters his lender hoped to reduce its auto loan portfolio to $5 to $6 billion by 2024.

Citizens had been the 25th largest originator of new-vehicle financing loans and leases and the 22nd largest used-vehicle financier in 2021, but had fallen out of the Top 25 in 2022, according to Experian market share data.