Credit unions push to regain market share in auto lending

The print ad developed by Reno's Ding Communications for Greater Nevada Credit Union shows a tiny woman in high heels as she struggles to climb into a tall pickup truck.

"There's never been a better time," the headline reads, "to drive something that's a little more you."

While the ad targets consumers who have been making do for so long that their lifestyles no longer fit their vehicles, it's also part of a growing number of campaigns by credit unions to regain the big share of the auto lending market that they held 18 months ago.

In 2009, credit unions nationally held a 22.5 percent share of the auto lending market, and their share had risen rapidly as banks and automakers' own finance units pulled back during the financial panic that began in the autumn of 2008.

"Credit unions had the money to loan," says Bill Meyer, a spokesman for CU Direct Corp. The company headquartered in Ontario, Calif., provides technological systems used by credit unions in their auto lending.

But today, those competitors are back in the automotive lending market, and credit unions' share has declined to about 17 percent, Meyer says.

The stepped-up competition comes at a time when lending secured by real estate first mortgages, home improvement loans and the like has slowed to a trickle for credit unions.

Auto loans, which were carrying an average rate of 5 percent for new cars financed at credit unions at the mid-point of this year, are a good option.

"We need more loans than what we've been getting," says W. Dean Altus Jr., executive vice president and chief operating officer of the 50,000-member Greater Nevada Credit Union.

The credit union showed $65.26 million in new-car loans on its books at the middle of this year along with $68.2 million in loans for its members to buy used cars. In total, auto loans accounted for about 40 percent of $337.2 million in loans on the credit union's books.

Other credit unions in the region rely even more heavily on auto lending.

Great Basin Federal Credit Union in Reno, for instance, held about $59 million in auto loans on its book at the mid-point of this year more than two thirds of its total loan-and-lease portfolio.

In the early days of the recession, big portfolios of car loans presented problems for some lenders.

The failure of Clearstar Financial Credit Union in Reno last October, for instance, was blamed by regulators on once-solid vehicle loans that turned sour when consumers lost their jobs. Clearstar was acquired by Michigan's United Federal Credit Union.

To build their books of auto loans this autumn, credit unions have launched double-headed marketing campaigns.

On one side, they talk directly to consumers through media campaigns such as the one launched by Greater Nevada Credit Union.

Great Basin Federal Credit Union, meanwhile, has been marketing to consumers with 3.99 percent loans for purchases of new or used vehicles, and has been marketing a 1 percent cash rebate up to $300 on new loans as well as refinancings.

"People love the rate," says Elisabeth Hadley, the credit union's marketing manager.

United Federal Credit Union, meanwhile, has been pushing rates as low as 3.39 percent and pitching up to 125 percent financing that allows borrowers to cover tax, title and registration costs in their loans.

Meyer says industry consultants encourage credit unions to focus particularly closely on their existing members as a potential automotive buyers, figuring those relationships will prove to be more solid if a borrower encounters financial difficulties.

Great Basin Credit Union, for instance, has scheduled a free open house Oct. 16 at which credit union members and nonmembers alike can learn about auto-financing options and the car-buying process.

Credit unions also are looking to cement their relationships with the finance managers of auto dealerships, who point buyers in the direction of a lender.

Greater Nevada Credit Union, for instance, developed a "preferred dealer" program in which it promotes dealers to its members, and the members get a price break.

Great Basin's Hadley says the relationship between a credit union and a dealership often is all about speed speedy decision-making on a loan application, speedy funding of a loan once it's been approved.

"It's very, very competitive right now," she says.