ATLANTA -

Equifax is reporting two main indicators of auto finance market health — outstanding balances and severe delinquency rates — continue to move along steady upward courses.

According to analyst data available through March, outstanding balances on total auto loans and leases increased 9.9 percent year-over-year to $985.6 billion. Equifax also indicated the number of outstanding accounts as of March came in 6.6 percent higher than compared to a year ago, totaling 71.6 million.

Equifax highlighted the severe delinquency rate — contracts more than 60 days behind — stood at 0.96 percent in March, which is down 9.2 percent from a year ago. Similarly, Equifax mentioned write-offs declined 5.4 percent from March 2014 to 20.1 basis points of balances outstanding.

Slicing deeper into the subprime space, Equifax shared data with SubPrime Auto Finance News that showed 418,600 auto loans were originated in January to consumers with an Equifax Risk Score below 620. That monthly amount represented  a 7.2-percent increase above the same month last year.

Those January subprime contracts have a corresponding total balance of $7.4 billion, according to Equifax. Analysts added that 21.1 percent of auto loans issued in January were associated with consumers with a subprime credit score, the same share as last year.

“When you start talking in the subprime space, it’s not so much about how the much the vehicle costs. It’s more about the affordability and the payment,” said Jennifer Reid, senior enterprise channel partner manager for automotive at Equifax

“I think we get really caught up in large numbers but for these folks, they’re looking at a payment. Doing what you can to help make that vehicle affordable in their month to month budget is much more relevant to those consumers than what the average loan balance is,” Reid continued during a conversation earlier this year at the Vehicle Finance Conference hosted by the American Financial Services Association.

“People so quickly forget, what was the alternative if you didn’t lend to subprime? The economy is so driven by the car and financial industry,” she went on to say. “Quite frankly, I think we have a massive success story just in the fact that consumers are getting loans. They’re getting lower interest rates. They’re getting better vehicles. 

“With the evolution of risked based pricing and having those tools, folks are understanding what the risk is,” Reid added. “That’s one of the big stories is that it’s OK to take risk. You have to take risk. If we didn’t have delinquencies, we wouldn’t be buying the right loans. I think the case is, do I understand what that risk I’m taking and priced accordingly for it. Then it becomes a numbers game at that point.”