Finance Companies' Auto Loans and Leases

The Federal Reserve does not include leases in data on consumer credit outstanding. Leases are not loans. Although the Fed no longer publishes aggregate data on automobile loans, it does provide data on finance company subsidiaries of bank holding companies, but not of retailers and banks. As may be seen in the accompanying chart, the latest data show that over the period from year-end 1994 to the end of the third quarter of 1999, total loans and leases of finance companies rose from 350.5 billion to 565.7 billion. Annual rates of increase slowed each year over the period, from 19.9 percent from years-end 1994 to 1995 to 7.1 percent from years-end 1997 to 1998. Throughout the period, outstanding leases were quite consistently about one-fifth of total loans and leases. Finance companies evidently became more successful in securitizing their lease portfolios. The portion securitized rose from 3.2 percent of outstanding leases at the end of 1994 to 10.2 percent at the end of the third quarter of 1999.

Outstanding Automobile Loans and Leases of Finance Companies, 1994-1999/3rd Quarter

(Quarterly data are not seasonally adjusted)

Source: Federal Reserve Board