HANOVER, Md. — The National Automotive Finance Association announced it will be using one term to standardize the various levels of financing for its members.

The newly coined "below-prime" will be used by the organization to help avoid confusion when discussing any financing that is not related to the prime financing rate, officials stated.

"When the association was founded in 1996 there really was only prime and non-prime, but strata of funding have been defined since then," explained Marguerite Watanabe of Connections Insight and president of the association's board of directors.

Added Steve Hall of Driverselect and past president of the association, "Non-prime is too narrow now, but it is awkward to talk about non-prime, subprime, near prime, etc. when we describe our focus.

"Our members work in all funding levels below prime, and so that is the term we adopted," added Hall, who is also the NAF Association's marketing committee head.

The new term is being put to work immediately as Hall's committee was charged with creating a new tagline for the organization.

Now, "Driving Below-Prime Finance" is the new tagline that describes the financing levels with which the NAF Association is concerned.

"The new tagline is active, concise and spotlights the association's expertise," Hall explained.

"The term describes the industry so well that it would not surprise us to see it adopted widely," said Jack Tracey, NAF Association executive director.