Ally Financial

The subprime lender could lose a big partner now that Fiat Chrysler has officially announced it will form its own auto finance unit, and the two are negotiating an end to their 6-year-old relationship.

Fiat Chrysler is expected to announce Friday that it will establish its own captive finance unit in the U.S. The move could be bad news for its lending partners.

Monthly repayment rates, a key credit metric, are improving, but Ally Financial's second dealer inventory financing transaction of the year includes fewer dealers from its highest-ranked internal credit tier.

Record originations on "better-yielding" used-car loans helped drive a 14% increase in its first-quarter profit. But Ally's shares were down Thursday on concerns of rising deposit costs.

Tim Russi played a key role in the company’s transition away from its once-close relationship on General Motors. He will be succeeded by Doug Timmerman, a 32-year Ally veteran.

The Detroit company recorded an 11% increase in car loans and leases originated during the fourth quarter, as well as a jump in yields. Ally appears to be benefiting from Wells Fargo's substantial retrenchment in auto lending.

The Dan Gilbert-controlled skyscraper has apportioned $70M of a $102M whole-loan refinancing to the Wells conduit.

That's only half as large as the lender's four previous deals, which ranged from $1.02 billion and $1.12 billion; company executives recently touted a shift toward more financing from deposits.

A $3.8 billion surge in deposits in the third quarter will allow the subprime lender more flexibility to fund originations on balance sheet, rather than bundling these assets into collateral for bonds.

The hurricanes destroyed hundreds of thousands of cars, and banks are significantly boosting their reserves in anticipation of higher defaults on auto loans. But there is also a silver lining for auto lenders.