Ally Financial is raising credit enhancement levels on its latest auto-loan securitization as a result of rising losses in its servicing portfolio and weakened performance of outstanding asset-backed transactions from its Capital Auto Receivables Trust (CARAT).
The transaction, dubbed CARAT 2018-1, is a securitization of about $1.08 billion across 67,220 loans originated indirectly for near-prime car buyers through franchised and independent dealerships.
Credit enhancement on four senior tranches of notes totaling $826 million is 15.25%, an increase from 14.5% on the comparable tranches of its previous CARAT transaction, completed in October 2017.
There is a $221 million Class A -1 money-market tranche with preliminary short-term F1+/A-1 ratings from Fitch Ratings and S&P Global Ratings. In a change from CARAT 2017-1, the $325 million Class A-2 notes due October 2020 will be split between floating- and fixed-rate tranches.
Rounding out the senior stack is a $280 million tranche of four-year Class A-3 notes maturing in January 2022 and $94.4 million of Class A-4 notes due June 2022.
Ally’s trust will also sell double-A rated Class B bonds totaling $36.2 million due August 2022 and single-A Class C notes in a $56.7 million tranche with a November 2022 maturity.
S&P expects net losses of 4% to 4.2% over the life of the transaction, an increase from 3.75%-3.95% for the previous CARAT offering. Ally had reported increased net losses of 2.5% in its auto-loan servicing portfolio as of Dec. 31, compared to 2.13% in December 2016. Thirty-day delinquencies were also up year-over-year to 7.39% from 6.51%.
Fitch Ratings has a higher base-case loss proxy of 5%, but that is down from the last time it rated an Ally nonprime securitization (CARAT 2016-1), citing a shift in the collateral mix to borrowers in Ally’s higher internal credit tiers.
S&P attributed the deterioration in performance of 2012-2017 vintage loans to a high number with longer terms, as well as a decline in the number of subvented receivables, or loans with artificially low interest rates, which typically go to borrowers with better credit. (General Motors in recent years has shifted all of its loan and lease incentive programs exclusively to its GM Financial subsidiary, shutting out Ally, its former captive-finance lender.)
The pool of loans backing the latest deal primarily (60%) finance new vehicles and have average annual percentage rates of 10.13%, original average terms of 69 months and are seasoned an average of 15 months. The weighted-average FICO in the pool is 645.
S&P notes the transaction’s expected excess spread has decreased to 6.01% from 7.23% in CARAT 2017-1 due to the lower average APRs and the higher weighted coupons of the notes.
Citigroup is the underwriter.
