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It is not right that a creditor be held liable for unintentional discrimination on the basis of less evidence than is required to prove intentional discrimination. Leveraging a settlement on threat of litigation without such evidence is an abuse of power.
March 6 -
Ally Financial (GKM) and Ally Bank will pay $98 million in fines and restitution to settle government claims that they discriminated against minorities through their indirect auto lending business.
December 20
Ally Financial announced a shuffling Wednesday at the top of its dealer financial services business.
William "Bill" Muir, the current head of the business, plans to retire by the end of the year, the company said in a news release. He will be succeeded by Jeffrey Brown, who is now senior vice president of finance and corporate planning at Ally.
Ally's dealer financial services business includes the company's automotive finance operations, which are among the largest in the industry, as well as its insurance and auto servicing operations.
Ally Chief Executive Michael Carpenter lauded Muir on Wednesday for leading the firm's auto lending business through its transition from General Motors' captive financing arm to its current incarnation as a stand-alone company that provides financing on numerous auto manufacturers' vehicles.
Prior to joining Ally in 2009, Brown served as corporate treasurer at Bank of America (BAC). Brown has been a "critical force" in implementing Ally's strategic transformation, Carpenter said.
"He has worked closely with the dealer financial services team and, in his new role, is committed to advancing Ally's leading dealer-centric business model," Carpenter said in the news release.
The moves come weeks after Carpenter said the company
In December, Ally reached a $98 million settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau after the agency found that the average African-American car buyer paid more than $300 more over the course of an Ally loan than a similarly situated white borrower.
The settlement agreement included incentives for Ally to switch to a flat-fee pricing model. Under that kind of system, auto dealers would receive a fixed amount of compensation for each loan.
But abandoning the markup system would likely result in Ally losing market share to other lenders, and the company said it will not go down that path.
