FORT WORTH, Texas -

The recent acquisition of Ally Credit Canada by Royal Bank of Canada triggered a question during a quarterly conference call Wednesday: Why didn’t General Motors Financial make a run at the financing arm since it already has lending and leasing activity in the country?

GM Financial president and chief executive officer Dan Berce addressed the issue when the company reported its third-quarter performance. Berce began by highlighting that GM Financial has “a pretty successful Canadian business at this point.”

The company tallied up its third-quarter Canadian lease originations and found they came in at $111 million. Berce acknowledged the figure was down from $156 million in the last quarter and $157 million in the year-ago period.

“While we have contributed to increases in GM lease penetration in Canada, the competitive environment continues to favor retail loan products, impacting our Canadian lease origination levels,” he said.

To boost its presence in the country, GM Financial launched its retail loan product for Canadian dealers during the third quarter, a product primarily targeting subprime consumers purchasing new and used vehicles at GM dealerships.

Furthermore, the company is scheduled to roll out a commercial lending platform for GM dealerships in Canada. Berce said that launch is set for “the first quarter or so of 2013.”

So why didn’t GM Financial scoop up Ally Credit Canada?

Ally Financial’s Canadian operations were based in Toronto and represented the largest single country of operations outside the U.S. with $13.6 billion in assets at the end of the third quarter. The operations consist of Ally Credit Canada and ResMor Trust, both subsidiaries of Ally.

Ally Credit Canada is one of the largest auto finance companies in Canada with approximately $9.4 billion in assets at the end of the third quarter. The business offers automotive financing and related services to dealers and their customers.

“Just like our capabilities in the U.S., we don’t believe getting the prime book or prime flow in Canada is right for our platform,” Berce said. “There are a lot of other providers in Canada for prime auto lending just like there are in the U.S., so we did not pursue that part of Ally.”

Ally’s remaining international businesses include automotive finance operations in Europe and Latin America. The company said it expects to identify plans for these operations this month.

Again, would GM Financial be interested in those properties?

“We can’t comment much on the ongoing process with respect to the rest of Ally International because it is in process still,” Berce said during this week’s conference call.