Auto lending

Car sales are booming, but credit unions are financing fewer purchases of new vehicles as borrowers migrate to digital channels.

The nation’s largest mortgage lender plans to use a new partnership with the financial technology company AutoFi to sell more cars to its home loan customers.

More than a year into the pandemic, with the U.S. economy improving and consumers having paid down debt, bankers are finally loosening the reins in auto lending and credit cards.

Looming defaults and the potential for heavier regulatory scrutiny have prompted banks to pull back from the sector. Is that a good thing?

The company’s retail banking and auto-lending businesses in the U.S. generated a larger share of overall profits in the first quarter, and Executive Chairman Ana Botín and other executives unveiled expansion plans for both units.

Surging used-car prices — brought on by a combination of strong consumer demand and limited new-vehicle supply — are boosting loan yields and profits at the Detroit company.

In the midst of the pandemic recession, banks have benefited from government stimulus payments to consumers, low interest rates and constraints on the supply of new vehicles. But intensifying competition and real concerns about borrowers’ ability to pay loans that went into forbearance could soon threaten profits and credit quality.

Rohit Chopra, President Biden’s nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has not minced words in calling out private companies for wrongdoing. He could get a grilling from Banking Committee Republicans and some opposition on the Senate floor.

After a slowdown in 2020, inventory shortages and other factors could make the months ahead a grind for many lenders.