DALLAS -

Just before Christmas, Santander Consumer USA Holdings wrapped up the purchase of  a $1.1 billion indirect vehicle loan portfolio from Gateway One Lending & Finance, the finance company announced.

Also included in the deal is an additional conversion of $0.5 billion in indirect auto loan assets. Santander plans to sub-service those assets for Gateway One, which is a subsidiary of TCF National Bank.

Gateway One is also an indirect subsidiary of TCF Financial Corporation.

“Santander Consumer USA has demonstrated its ability over many years to partner with other large, and well-regarded financial institutions to leverage our best-in-class servicing platform,” Santander Consumer president and chief executive officer Mahesh Aditya said in a news release.

“This transaction marks another highlight for 2019, a year in which we reached a mutually beneficial agreement with Fiat Chrysler, made important leadership appointments and continued optimizing capital through an increased dividend and a robust share repurchase plan,” Aditya said

As for the sub-service piece, Santander said its Serviced for Others arm “has offered end-to-end servicing with high performance standards and robust compliance” for over a decade.

The company said it had serviced about $10 billion in auto assets for six financial institutions as of Sept. 30.

In the news release, chief financial officer Fahmi Karam said: “We are excited to announce this transaction with Gateway One as it aligns with two of our key priorities, to be opportunistic on portfolio acquisitions and to leverage our servicing platform to drive fee income.

“This transaction is another example of the value we can provide to third parties when partially or completely outsourcing their servicing needs,” Karam said. “We are continuously identifying and evaluating strategic ways to deploy capital that are accretive to our business and add shareholder value.”