The metrics and performance of General Motors Financial are showing more distinct characteristics of a traditional captive finance company and less of a provider that used to book a significant amount of subprime paper.

In fact, GM Financial reported that its penetration of originations associated with retail deliveries by the parent automaker reached an all-time high during the first quarter, climbing to 50.4 percent. The level smashed the previous all-time record established a year earlier, which was 37.5 percent.

“GM had some down payment assistance promotions in the market during the quarter, which drove increased penetration of standard loans,” GM Financial president and chief executive officer Dan Berce said.

However, the company didn’t abandon the subprime space completely. Berce pointed out during the company’s recent quarterly conference call that originations through its AmeriCredit channel — the division that works with non-GM dealers and typically takes the subprime paper — grew to $700 million during the second quarter, up by $200 million year-over-year.

All told, GM Financial reported that its retail originations totaled $6.5 billion for the quarter that ended March 31, compared to $4.7 billion for the quarter that closed Dec. 31 and $4.1 billion for the year-ago quarter.

“Credit trends remained stable, positively impacted by our mix shift to prime credit quality assets in U.S.,” Berce said. “And our primary headwind remains used-car values, U.S. disposition proceeds on returned leased vehicles compared to estimates at origination continued to moderate during the quarter.

“We do expect used vehicle prices to decline about 7 percent year-over-year throughout 2017,” he continued.

GM Financial indicated its outstanding balance of retail finance receivables was $36.0 billion as of March 31.

Chief financial officer and executive vice president Chris Choate explained the subprime segment of the company’s portfolio represented approximately 12 percent of its ending earning assets when the second quarter finished, down from 17 percent a year earlier.

“The composition of those earning assets continues to shift to a more prime light credit profile, consistent with some of the mix trends Dan has already discussed,” Choate said.

That additional prime paper helped to improve other GM Financial metrics.

The company reported its retail finance receivables 31 to 60 days delinquent constituted 2.8 percent of the portfolio at the close of the first quarter. A year earlier, it was 3.1 percent.

GM Financial noted accounts more than 60 days delinquent improved to 1.2 percent of the portfolio from 1.4 percent a year ago.

The company added its annualized net charge-offs remained flat year-over-year, holding at 1.9 percent of average retail finance receivables.

Berce also mentioned recovery rates stood at 52 percent for the quarter, down from 54 percent a year ago. He said the rates were “up a bit sequentially due to seasonal reasons, but we do expect recovery rates to continue to trend down year-over-year throughout 2017.”

Looking more positively, customers maintaining their payments helped GM Financial to post net income of $202 million for the quarter, up from $164 million a year earlier.

A few other notable elements to GM Financial’s Q1 report included the call out of its outstanding balance of commercial finance receivables ticking up to $11.8 billion as of March 31.

The company also highlighted total available liquidity of $12.4 billion as of March 31, consisting of $2.7 billion of cash and cash equivalents, $8.3 billion of borrowing capacity on unpledged eligible assets, $0.4 billion of borrowing capacity on committed unsecured lines of credit and $1.0 billion of borrowing capacity on a Junior Subordinated Revolving Credit Facility from GM.

“Our funding platform continued successful execution on many fronts,” Berce said. “We issued $5.5 billion in public secured and unsecured debt securities in the quarter. And subsequent to quarter end, we closed our first U.S. prime loan securitization, which we call GMCAR, for a total of $1 billion.”

Elaborating about securitizations, Choate later added, “Also, as a reminder, we have numerous securitization platforms segregated by asset type and geography. This list is very similar to a list from prior quarters, with the exception, again, that we have now executed our first U.S. prime retail loan securitization under the GMCAR platform.

“Our global senior notes platform funds our operations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Mexico, where we expect to do five to eight issuances per year,” Choate went on to say. “And our total issuance in 2017 will be increasing this year, most notably because of the launch of our GMCAR securitization program. Otherwise, we expect our cadence to be reasonably similar to 2016.”