DETROIT –

Earlier this week, J.D. Power appointed Jim Houston as senior director of its auto finance practice. In this role, Houston will deploy his significant auto finance business experience to help guide the industry through what J.D. Power contends could potentially be a volatile period of new-vehicle sales and declining used-vehicle values.

Houston comes to J.D. Power with nearly 30 years of experience in the auto finance business, most recently with TD Auto Finance.

Houston has held leadership positions at both captive financing companies and banks across the spectrum of auto finance functions, including dealer operations, sales and marketing, business intelligence, product management, commercial services, fair lending, customer service and collections. 

“I’m very excited to be joining J.D. Power to lead the auto finance practice, especially at this critical time for the automotive market and lenders,” Houston said.

“The combination of new-vehicle sales tapering off and the growing volume of off-lease vehicles driving down used-car values creates some potential business concerns for auto lenders,” he continued.

“It’s not a doom-and-gloom scenario, but it does require banks and captive lenders to remain diligent in order to stay competitive," Houston went on to say.