Credit Acceptance Corp. received a subpoena from the Maryland attorney general regarding its repossession and sales policies, the subprime lender disclosed Monday.
The company said in its annual report that it received the subpoena on March 18. The firm is cooperating with the investigation and is in the process of providing requested information, Chief Executive Officer Brett Roberts said on the lender's first quarter earnings call.
Maryland is at least the fifth government body to launch an investigation into Credit Acceptance's practices since December 2014. The other investigative notices, including one from the U.S. Justice Department and another from the Federal Trade Commission, are related to its origination and lending practices. It has faced no penalties or charges connected with those probes to date.
Credit Acceptance spokesman Douglas Busk didn't respond to requests for comment. Christine Tobar, spokeswoman for the Maryland attorney general's office, declined to comment.
Subprime auto lenders have issued record volumes of new loans to riskier borrowers in recent years. Some of the loans have started to show signs of stress, attracting additional regulatory scrutiny. In October, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau required Westlake Financial Services, a competitor of Credit Acceptance, to pay $44 million in consumer relief after finding that its debt collection tactics were illegal, the bureau said.
