U.S. Bank, the largest independent financer of car leases, increased its approval rate for lease transfers at the beginning of 2013.
It approved 80% of drivers who applied to take on an auto lease through the site Swapalease.com, compared to the average approval rate of about 65% last five months of 2012, the site said Wednesday. The approval rate is up from about 50% in January 2012.
U.S. Bank, a unit of Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp (USB), is the largest provider of non-captive auto leases, or leases that are not financed through the car's manufacturer, and Swapalease.com is the most commonly used website for facilitating lease transfers. Any lease transfer must be approved by the bank that issued the lease, and lenders generally only permit transfers when the receiver's credit is as good as the transferor's.
The higher approval rate reflects a recovery in the creditworthiness of American lenders, Swapalease.com says. "We're continuing to see a resilient economy bounce back from the recession of a few years ago," said Scot Hall, executive vice president of Swapalease.com, in the news release.
