Consumer lending

More than $2.5 billion in new subprime auto securitization deals hit the market this week, including a portfolio of indirect loans pooled by first-time issuer First Help Financial.

If it’s approved, the charter is expected to lower the fintech’s cost of funds and allow for more product offerings. It comes nearly three years after SoFi pulled the plug on an earlier effort to open an industrial bank.

The agency sought to provide certainty that most actions from the past eight years remain in effect despite the ruling that the bureau's leadership structure is unconstitutional.

Tom Pahl, a former longtime regulator at the Federal Trade Commission, has led key rulemaking efforts for the consumer bureau.

For banks with assets between $10 billion and $100 billion, the average exposure is 165% of capital.

Subprime auto ABS market participants do not see its outlook worsening significantly as a result of the pandemic, but most anticipate losses.

Compared with the week prior, approximately 57,000 fewer loans from all investor types were forborne.

Other challenger banks focused on personal loans have struggled since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Westlake Automobile Receivables Trust 2020-2 pools a portfolio of loans for mostly high-mileage used-vehicles financed by the privately held Westlake through independent and franchise dealers. The deal includes a $370.9 million triple-A tranche (as preliminarily rated by S&P Global Ratings and DBRS Morningstar) that benefits from 42.75% initial credit enhancement.

A budget item establishing a new agency to protect consumers from predatory lenders has been put on hold as state officials deal with the coronavirus response and other priorities. But it could be revived in legislative talks later this summer.