DETROIT — Despite being the only financial institution to
fail recent stress tests administered by the Federal Reserve to gauge ability
to weather a severe recession, Ally Financial finished 2012 as the market
leader for all auto financing, according to data from Experian Automotive.

Ally took the No. 1 spot back from Wells Fargo during
the fourth quarter by securing 5.40 percent of the entire market. The amount
edged above Wells Fargo's Q4 level of 5.29 percent of all auto lending.

However, Ally's Q4 auto lending amount represented a 20.1-percent
drop from the last quarter of 2011. Nonetheless, the company financed nearly
1.5 million new and used vehicles through franchised and independent dealers
last year.

"With nearly $39 billion in consumer auto financing and
$32.5 billion in commercial auto assets outstanding at the end of 2012, Ally's
support for the U.S. auto industry remains as strong as ever," said Bill Muir,
president of Ally Financial.  "We now have
business relationships with nearly 15,000 dealers across the country, and our
comprehensive product offerings are unmatched in the marketplace."

Muir insisted Ally is the company continued its
transformation to a diversified, dealer-centric business model with the core
focus on the U.S. auto industry. 

"The strategic actions we initiated last year to sell our
international operations will further strengthen Ally in the U.S. for the long
term," Muir said.

Ally is hiring an additional 200 sales and underwriting
staff members this year in order to broaden its business reach and increase
service to dealers.

"We help dealers of multiple brands sell more cars and
trucks.  We do that by providing
expertise on the ground and at the underwriting desk," Muir said.  "As the economy continues to improve, Ally
will be well positioned to support the expected steady increase in financed
auto sales."

Used-vehicle financing and leasing comprised 46 percent of
Ally's contract originations in 2012, up from 14 percent three years ago.

Meanwhile, Ally defended itself when last week the Federal
Reserve said the company was the only one of 18 finance firm to fail hypothetical
stress tests officials administered pursuant to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street
Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

The Fed said the nation's largest bank holding companies
have continued to improve their ability to withstand an extremely adverse
hypothetical economic scenario and are collectively in a much stronger capital
position than before the financial crisis.

The severity of the stress scenario included a peak
unemployment rate of 12.1 percent, a drop in equity prices of more than 50
percent, a decline in housing prices of more than 20 percent and a sharp market
shock for the largest trading firms.

As a result the Fed said projected losses at the 18 bank
holding companies would total $462 billion during the nine quarters of the
hypothetical stress scenario. The aggregate Tier 1 common capital ratio, which
compares high-quality capital to risk-weighted assets, would fall from an
actual 11.1 percent in the third quarter of 2012 to 7.7 percent in the fourth
quarter of 2014 in the hypothetical stress scenario.

However, Ally Financial believes that the Federal Reserve's
analysis of Ally's capital adequacy for the Dodd-Frank Act Stress Test (DFAST)
is "fundamentally flawed." Ally insisted the analysis is inconsistent with
historical experience in the most stressed periods in its business

"While Ally appreciates the Fed's role in ensuring that
financial institutions have adequate capital during stressed situations, using
flawed assumptions could have lasting adverse impacts on the economy, including
ultimately causing banks to reduce certain key lending categories," Ally said.

To give an example, Ally pointed out the loss rates assumed
for the automotive finance business are "implausible, even in dire economic
situations."

Ally stressed, "The auto finance sector, in fact, has
historically been one of the best performing asset classes during economic
downturns."

Regardless of the test results, Ally said it continues to
have strong capital levels and ample liquidity to support its automotive
finance operations.

"Moreover, if the Fed has significant concerns about Ally's
capital adequacy, it can immediately initiate a conversion of approximately
$5.9 billion of existing capital that can be fully converted into Tier 1 common
equity at their discretion," Ally said.

"If the Fed had converted this capital, Ally's Tier 1 common
ratio would have been 7.6 percent, which would have been materially in line
with the industry average for the 18 banks in the DFAST analysis," the company
went on to say.

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