CFPB Impact? Not Too Much Yet, for Some Retailers
CARY, N.C. — There is no denying the sweeping changes throughout all the tentacles of the auto industry stemming from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's auto finance-targeted actions. But there are at least some public dealer group that say they aren't seeing any behavior changes from lenders, with F&I results actually remaining quite strong.
According to transcript of Group 1 Automotive's most recent quarterly earnings conference call provided by SeekingAlpha.com — which can be found here — an analyst asked if the retailer had noticed any changes with lenders brought on by the CFPB.
The answer? No.
In fact, president and chief executive officer Earl Hesterberg indicated that Group 1's F&I gross profit per retail unit in the U.S. was an all-time high.
"Our U.S. number continues to improve," he said, noting the 9.1-percent gain that brought F&I gross profit per retail unit up to $1,375 per unit in the U.S.
"So, our F&I business is actually quite strong," he continued.
Chief financial officer, chief accounting officer and senior vice president John Rickel offered further details: "Basically, if you look at the individual markets, particularly the U.S. and the U.K., we actually saw good growth in F&I income. Both on an improved retail basis and obviously these volumes were up. So what you're seeing on a consolidated basis is basically just the mix effect of the countries.
"And then to your question on any different behavior from the banks, no, we really are not seeing any change in their behavior," he continued. "They are all obviously working hard to answer data requests from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. But, so far, we have not seen any change in their buying or their terms of how they buy."
A similar question was posted to Asbury Automotive Group's management during its conference call this month, according to this Seeking Alpha transcript.
Its president and CEO, Craig Monaghan, had this to say: "As far as the CFPB … there is not a lot of clarity from our side of the picture, we've not really had any impact to speak off, I think it's wait and see from our standpoint, but at this point in time it's of no relevance to us right at this moment."
Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@subprimenews.com. Continue the conversation with SubPrime Auto Finance News on LinkedIn and Twitter.