Nicholas Stanutz
Analyst · Nomura
Thanks, Dan. Turning to Slide 26. For the last 6 months, there has been an increasing level of attention on Huntington's indirect automobile portfolio. Today I'd like to provide additional data that should help clarify most of the questions and/or issues that are asked about this business. In the next 3 slides I will: one, show you Huntington has been able to hold pricing higher relative to the industry, while at the same time originating record production by expanding into Eastern Pennsylvania and the New England markets, all the while maintaining our strong underwriting standards; two, describe to you the current portfolio by vintages and rates, so you can see the loan pricing has mirrored the decline in 2-year swap rates, the rate of decline has significantly decelerated over the last year and a half, still leaving us with sufficient margins; and three, provide you with details that this bank, not the manufactured captive finance companies that have a dominant market share position in the financing of new and used vehicles sold to franchise dealers, which is our core market focus. Captives have minimal market share of the used segment, which is as large as the new segment and which account for over half of our auto loan production. These captives mission is to support the manufacturing and selling of new vehicles to consumers. They do not play in the used vehicle space where we do. As you know, we originate super prime indirect automobile loans. The chart on the left shows the industry rate for super prime new and used vehicles. Our originations had an average FICO score of 760 and have been very stable for years. Huntington's comparable rates are shown on the right, again, segregated between new and used autos. With regards to loans on new vehicles, the average rate in 2011 first quarter for super prime loans were 3.64%. This rate was down 74 basis points from the year earlier. For Huntington, our average rate in 2011 first quarter was 4.27%, or 63 basis points higher than the industry average. Further, this was down 34 basis points from the prior year or less than half the industry decline in similar super prime credits. The story is similar for used car loans. For the industry, the average rate in the 2011 first quarter for super prime loans is 5.06%, a 95 basis point drop from a year earlier. In contrast, our average rate in the 2011 first quarter was 5.86%, or 80 basis points higher than the comparable industry average. Further, this was only down 7 basis points from the prior year or 88 basis points less than the industry decline for similar super prime credits. As show in the table on the right, our combined yield is basically in line with the decline in the 2-year swap rates. The question I get asked most frequently is how do we accomplish these metrics? You've heard me say it starts with our long-standing, unwavering history of support for the dealer community. For over 60 years, we have been there for the dealers regardless of the cycle. In 2009, auto industry uncertainties allowed us to once again demonstrate our support for dealers. When companies like Allied couldn't provide their historical support, we were there. Our business model is quite unique. It is local, which is very different from our competition. By having sales and underwriting in the local market, we know our dealers, we know our economies and they know us. The combination of longevity, commitment, being local and easy to do business with collectively drive our results. Keep in mind that when a dealership uses our rates, which might be 20 to 50 basis points higher than the market, that only increases the monthly payment of the customer by $5 to $10. Good experienced F&I managers can sell that all day long to applicants. The bottom line is that for those loans that are in and out of this market who operate on the fringes, they can only compete on rates. This is their only option. On the other hand, for Huntington, where we compete on the total relationship and total service provided basis, that is the difference. This makes us best in class in not only things like approval time, like, 4 seconds or less on 75% of our applications or on our same-day funding of loan contracts, our dealer-centric approach gives us pricing leverage and superior dealer loyalty. Slide 27 shows automobile loan origination vintages that currently comprise our $6.2 billion automobile portfolio. The average rate for our customers in this portfolio is 5.91%. The key points are decline in yields throughout our entire portfolio over the last 2.5 years has been slightly greater than 150 basis points. Importantly, that decline is slowing because over 70% of our current production had been originated in the last 18 months at an average rate of close to 5%. And while there continues to simply runoff of our older higher yielding loan, the increase origination volume and resulting increase balance levels more than offset the impact in dollars to the net interest income. Turning to Slide 28. I would like to dispel the notion that what banks do in the auto finance space is driven or dictated by the captives. This graph shows the relative percentage of new and used vehicle financing markets allocated between the major players. Banks are the largest player in this market with nearly 40% of the total volumes and nearly double that of the manufacturer. This is because the market for new only includes that, but not -- also the used vehicle market. As a matter fact, the used vehicle market sold through franchise dealers is just as large as the new markets. So whenever you hear the industry talk about the new vehicles seller rate being whatever, the used vehicle market is just as large as the new. Therefore, when you add the 2 markets together, the new and the used as shown here, banks dominate. In fact, captives represent less than 10% of the used car market, and that is significant for us when you consider that over 50% of our originations are used vehicle loans. Let me turn the presentation back to Steve