National Automotive Finance Association executive director Jack Tracey nicely summarized developments coming from the Federal Reserve last week. After making multiple upticks in interest rates last year, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 2.25 percent to 2.50 percent. And Fed chair Jerome Powell […] [Read More]

College students from across the country are heading to Detroit this Friday through Sunday for a chance to make their entrepreneurial dreams come to life. Ally Financial has teamed up with fellow Motor City native, entertainer and entrepreneur Sean “Big Sean” Anderson and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) to create Moguls in the Making […] [Read More]

For the second time this quarter, two major participants in the financial services and payments spaces made moves to merge. In January, Fiserv and First Data Corp., announced that their boards of directors unanimously approved a definitive merger agreement. Then last week, FIS and Worldpay also announced that they have entered into a definitive merger […] [Read More]

AutoNation Honda Hollywood has taken many steps to lower its energy costs and reduce its environmental impact in the community. Some of those steps include installing energy-efficient lighting and HVAC systems and state-of-the-art LED lighting in the interior and exterior of the dealership. Because of actions like that, AutoNation Honda Hollywood has been named a […] [Read More]

Data from the first two months of the year prompted J.D. Power Valuation Services to revise its wholesale price forecast for 2019. And depending on the state of your dealership, the updated prediction could be valuable information to help sharpen your used-car strategy. “With January and February’s weaker-than-expected performances, 2019’s outlook has worsened,” J.D. Power […] [Read More]

Yes, you’re correct. There are more vehicles flowing down the lanes nowadays. J.D. Power Valuation Services reported in the latest edition of Guidelines that auction volume in February for units up to five years in age increased by 7.3 percent year-over-year. As a result, analysts determined year-to-date wholesale volume is now 9.1 percent above the […] [Read More]

Projecting residual values is a complicated process made even more intense with the depth of features and technology in new vehicles coupled with other market factors in play. Describing how ALG handles those challenges, Nick connected with vice president strategic initiatives Alain Nana-Sinkam for a discussion during NADA Show 2019 about the future of residual-value […] [Read More]

Another finance company is seeing the potential benefit of leveraging Dealertrack Accelerated Title. After recently reaching relationships with Westlake Financial Services as well as dealer associations in Louisiana and Wisconsin, Dealertrack this week announced that KeyBank Dealer Retail Services has selected the company’s solution to help expedite its vehicle payoff and title release process with […] [Read More]

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data recently released its quarterly report on household debt and credit.  While some pundits initially rushed to point to a negative theme — 7 million people had an auto finance contract at least 90 days delinquent in 2018 — the Fed was quick to reign […] [Read More]

Past surveys showed reasonably high acceptance toward fully self-driving cars. But that was before several high-profile automated vehicle incidents occurred about a year ago. Since then, attitudes toward self-driving cars have not rebounded, with 71 percent of participants in an AAA automated vehicle survey saying they are afraid to ride in fully self-driving vehicles. But […] [Read More]