IRVING, Texas -

Specialty auto finance company Exeter Finance Corp. announced on Monday that it appointed company veteran Brad Nall to be chief financial officer in a move that was effective Feb. 1.

Nall joined Exeter in July 2012 and has more than 25 years of experience in the consumer finance industry. He has held numerous senior roles during his career within budgeting and strategic planning, financial reporting, project management, business development, mergers and acquisitions, whole loan sales and structured finance.

The company highlighted Nall also has a strong background in the areas of operations, risk management, credit and pricing, accounting, control and compliance. Prior to Exeter, he spent 12 years at Citi's auto finance and personal loan businesses in various finance roles.

“I am pleased and honored to serve in this role for Exeter Finance,” Nall said. “During my tenure here, I have seen the company grow and thrive beyond expectations. I look forward to contributing to the continued growth of the organization as well as serving our dealers and customers in the most effective manner possible.”

Exeter chief executive officer Jason Grubb added, “Brad’s extensive financial experience, industry knowledge and exhaustive commitment to our company's success will be invaluable as we continue to execute our business plan and strategic initiatives.”

And the company apparently will be executing that strategy under the assumption that there is not a subprime “bubble” inflating. Grubb agreed with assertions made by the three credit bureaus at the outset of the Vehicle Finance Conference hosted by the American Financial Services Association last month in New Orleans. Grubb participated on the CEO panel to close the event and touched on the topic.

“Our 2016 vintages performed better than 2015,” said Grubb, who also is a member of AFSA’s board of directors. “Even though we’ve seen a deterioration in the wholesale market where our severity is worse but our frequency is less. Most people grabbed more yield in 2016 so they’ve been able to save their margins even though we’ve seen a decline in the wholesale market.

“There are headwinds obviously,” he added. “Hopefully a lot of us have been originating with lesser LTVs and provisioning for the losses. We can add an adjuster for higher depreciating vehicles and other measures that can be taken to offset some of this.”