NEW YORK — Along with announcing that the parent company has been rebranded to Ally Financial and providing an update on business with Chrysler dealers, GMAC Financial Services reported this week that North American originations came in at $6.7 billion for the first quarter, including $6 billion in U.S. originations.

First-quarter originations for this segment last year were $2.4 billion, including about $2.3 billion from the U.S.

Reviewing income from continuing operations, the North American auto finance sector earned $653 million, up $284 million from $369 million in the prior quarter, but down $8 million from $660 million in the same period of last year.

"Results were driven by strong originations supported by improved penetration, remarketing gains due to favorable used-vehicle pricing and lower loan loss provision expense resulting from improved performance in both the core automotive portfolio and the Nuvell subprime legacy portfolio," officials indicated.

The company also noted that it was chosen as the global provider of wholesale and retail financing for qualified Saab dealers and customers, as well as being tapped as the provider of retail financing for Thor industries, which manufacturers recreational vehicles.

Moreover, officials said the auto finance division extended its reach by joining DealerTrack, which serves about 17,000 dealers throughout the U.S. and Canada.

When it comes to serving General Motors and Chrysler dealers, officials indicated, "At March 31, 2010, GMAC's U.S. wholesale penetration for GM dealer stock was 87.7 percent, compared to 90.9 percent at year-end 2009 and 80.1 percent at March 31, 2009.

"U.S. retail penetration for GM was 33.5 percent during the first quarter of 2010, compared to 30.3 percent in the prior quarter and 18.6 percent in the first quarter of 2009," executives added.

Continuing on, officials said that GMAC's U.S. wholesale penetration for Chrysler dealer stock came in at 76.4 percent at the end of the quarter, compared with 77.3 percent in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the company's retail penetration for Chrysler for the period "improved significantly" to 42.1 percent, compared to 25.5 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009.

According to officials, "This was the result of increased originations due to the on-boarding of the Chrysler automotive finance business."

Global Auto Finance

Reviewing the overall global automotive finance division, GMAC reported consumer financing originations of $8.2 billion for the quarter, which included $6.2 billion in new originations, $1.2 billion in used originations and about $800 million new leases.

In a comparison, 2009 first-quarter consumer financing originations were $3.7 billion, including $3.2 billion of new originations, about $400 million in used originations and approximately $150 million in new leases.

As for international consumer originations, in particular, which included a joint venture in China, these came in at $1.5 billion, compared with $1.3 billion in the first quarter of last year. About 85 percent of the international consumer originations came from Germany, U.K., Brazil, Mexico and China, which are GMAC's five primary markets overseas.

Global delinquencies from continuing operations, which are defined as the dollar amount of managed retail contracts more than 30 days past due as a percent of total outstanding managed retail contracts, were 2.87 percent for the period, compared to 3.48 percent in the fourth quarter of last year and 2.82 percent in the first quarter of the prior year.

"The decline from the prior quarter was due to better vintage performance, improving collection processes and seasonality," officials reported.

Annualized credit losses from continuing operations were down in the first quarter to 2.04 percent of average managed retail contract assets, compared to 3.57 percent in the prior quarter and 2.43 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

"The decline from the prior quarter was the result of significantly lower losses in both the core auto portfolio and the Nuvell subprime legacy portfolio due to improving collection processes and seasonality," executives explained.

"The core auto portfolio credit losses also benefited from improved underwriting policies. During the quarter, there were strong recoveries due to a favorable used-vehicle market and the company's improving collection and recovery processes," they added.

The international auto finance segment posted pre-tax income from continuing operations of $10 million, compared to a $36 million pre-tax loss from continuing operations during the same time frame of last year.

"Results in the quarter were favorably affected by lower funding costs in line with lower asset base and a lower loan loss provision due to improving credit performance," officials pointed out. "This improvement was partially offset by lower financing revenue due to the wind-down of operations in several countries and a loss related to the reclassification of the Australian loan portfolio to held-for-sale."

The company noted that it completed the sale of the auto finance retail credit portfolio in Australia and the full-service auto leasing businesses in Australia and Poland.

Overall Business

In its entirety, GMAC reported net income of $162 million for the first quarter, compared with a net loss of $675 million in 2009.

"The first quarter marks a key milestone in GMAC's transformation, as the company made significant strides toward achieving our strategic objectives," explained Michael Carpenter, GMAC chief executive officer.

"We achieved profitability, our premier auto finance franchise continued to expand, the capital markets reopened to GMAC debt, we have reduced expenses, and we took several additional steps to contain and reduce risk in the mortgage business," he added.

According to officials, core pre-tax income, which reflects income from continuing operations before taxes and original issue discount amortization expense from bond exchanges, totaled $564 million, compared to the core pre-tax loss of $482 million in the prior year.

The management team explained that, "core pre-tax income during the quarter was driven by: higher net interest margin; gains on asset sales; improved servicing income; and significantly lower loan loss provision expense, while coverage ratios remained strong.

"The lower loan loss provision expense during the quarter was due to the strategic actions related to the mortgage business taken at year-end 2009, stabilizing auto credit trends, a strong used-car market and the continued liquidation of certain legacy portfolios," the team said.

GMAC's consolidated cash and cash equivalents stood at $14.7 billion at the end of the quarter, compared to $14.8 billion at the end of the fourth quarter. In a breakdown, the company said that the balance includes $725 million at ResCap, $4.4 billion at Ally Bank, which excludes certain intercompany deposits, and $626 million at the insurance business.

The company's total equity was $20.5 billion, compared to $20.8 billion in the prior quarter.

"The marginal decrease in total equity was due to preferred dividend payments and accruals, partially offset by first quarter net income," officials relayed. "GMAC's preliminary first quarter 2010 tier 1 capital ratio was 14.9 percent, compared to 14.1 percent in the prior quarter. GMAC's tier 1 capital ratio improved due to a reduction in risk-weighted assets resulting from asset sales during the quarter."

Discussing the Ally brand, officials said this transition will be limited to the corporate entity and there will not be any change to the branding of the company's operating units at this time.

"Options to potentially use the Ally brand more broadly within the company are currently being evaluated; however, decisions have not been finalized," according to the management team.