Consumer Portfolio Services chairman and chief executive officer Brad Bradley acknowledged that he thought the company would operate like other subprime auto finance providers during the third quarter — tightening up underwriting and not booking as much paper.

Turns out that according to Bradley, CPS modified its origination pace during Q3, but the rest of the subprime industry didn’t. But he’s not upset because, “We are doing well. We’re making money. Our numbers look pretty good.”

The specific Q3 numbers CPS reported this week included that the company purchased $242.1 million of new contracts compared to $319.1 million during the second quarter of this year and $287.5 million during the third quarter of last year. The activity pushed the company’s managed receivables total to $2.292 billion as of Sept. 30, an increase from $2.254 billion as of June 30 and $1.941 billion as of the end of last year’s third quarter.

“The numbers we can be happy with and given the circumstances in our industry, it’s really not a bad thing,” Bradley said when CPS hosted its quarterly conference call on Tuesday. “I think in a strange way over the last year or so CPS has become somewhat of a spectator in our own industry, and that’s a good thing not a bad thing.

“The good part is everyone seems to know what is going on in the industry, but no one seems to care what CPS is doing. Everybody is happy with what CPS is doing,” he continued.

The CPS results and Bradley’s comments arrived at what might be an interesting juncture. Cox Automotive chief economist Tom Webb shared this assessment back in August, noting, “As I listen to lenders, and more importantly their investors, almost unanimously they are now saying we’re at the point in the cycle where as the saying goes, ‘You manage your book; you don’t grow your book.’”

In light of that kind of sentiment, Bradley said, “In some ways, as much as we’re not wonderfully happy with our total overall performance, we’ve done pretty well.

“Ironically compared to lots of people in the industry we’ve done great,” he continued. “And so that puts us in an odd spot in that everyone is waiting to see what everyone else is going to do. How is the industry going to shake out? How are the big players going to change? What are the small people going to do?

“And so we sit in the middle. We are doing well. We’re making money. Our results are pretty good, and so we’re going to have to wait and see,” Bradley went on to say.

During the third quarter, CPS generated $7.3 million in earnings or $0.26 per diluted share. A year earlier, the company’s net income came in at $8.8 million, or $0.28 per diluted share.

The company also highlighted that its Q3 revenues jumped 15.5 percent to $108.5 million. However, the company’s total operating expenses for the third quarter grew by a higher pace — 22.6 percent — to come in at $96.1 million.

Looking at the performance of CPS’ book, the company indicated its annualized net charge-offs for the third quarter stood at 6.69 percent of the average owned portfolio as compared to 6.27 percent a year earlier.

The company’s Q3 delinquencies greater than 30 days (including repossession inventory) came in at 10.46 percent of the total owned portfolio as of Sept. 30, as compared to 8.81 percent on the same date in 2015.

So what might happen with CPS to close 2016?

“We need some sort of result in what is going to happen with the big guys, what is going to happen to the small guys,” Bradley said. “Personally in our experience of 25 years, I think our industry is well suited to pick up the new small guys. I don’t think there will be a big bunch of crashes and I think the industry itself would absorb anybody who has any problem whatsoever. But we just need all this to happen and then I think you get some closure on those two areas.

“CPS is well positioned to take advantage of the market both in terms of our size, in terms of our growth potential … we’re in a good spot,” he added.