Credit Acceptance Corporation is an auto

finance company Financial institutions, sometimes called banking institutions, are business entities that provide services as intermediaries for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial insti ...

providing automobile loans and other related financial products. The company operates its financial program through a national network of dealer-partners, the automobile dealers participating in the programs. The company operates two programs: the "Portfolio Program" and the "Purchase Program". Through these programs, the company can advance money to

automobile dealer A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as t ...

s in exchange for the right to service the underlying

consumer loan Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt), ...

s and can buy the consumer loans from automobile dealers. Credit Acceptance reported annual revenue of $1.49B for 2019.

History

In 1972, Credit Acceptance Corporation was founded by

Donald Foss Donald A. Foss ( – August 14, 2022) was an American billionaire businessman, the founder, chairman, and CEO of the subprime car finance company Credit Acceptance. At his death, his net worth was estimated at US$2 billion. Early life Foss w ...

, one of the largest

used car A used car, a pre-owned vehicle, or a secondhand car, is a vehicle that has previously had one or more retail owners. Used cars are sold through a variety of outlets, including franchise and independent car dealers, rental car companies, buy ...

dealers in the world at that time. In 1992, Credit Acceptance Corporation completed its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

on the

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

exchange, where it trades under the symbol "CACC."

Criticism

On December 12, 2019 NPR aired a segment of

Morning Edition ''Morning Edition'' is an American radio news program produced and distributed by NPR. It airs weekday mornings (Monday through Friday) and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 5:00 to 9:00 AM ...

called "The Big Business Of Subprime Auto Loans", by Anjali Kamat, which described "the murky world of subprime auto finance," and called it "eerily similar to the subprime mortgage lending that touched off the last financial crisis." Aaron Greenspan, a short-seller and transparency expert who published a detailed report about the company, said: "It's a very strange set of circumstances where, like, high finance has been married with this kind of seedy underbelly of the auto industry." Credit Acceptance has been investigated by the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

and the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

for questionable practices related to subprime lending. Credit Acceptance repossesses 35 percent of the cars it finances. The company has also been criticized for its opaque accounting. According to an article by Aaron Back for the

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

, "The problem is that the company’s unique accounting practices make it difficult to see how its loans are really doing. Credit Acceptance uses a form of 'level yield accounting' that is normally applied to purchases of already impaired loans. This means Credit Acceptance doesn’t disclose what portion of loans are delinquent or have defaulted."

References

External links

* {{NASDAQ Financial-100 Financial services companies of the United States Companies based in Southfield, Michigan Financial services companies established in 1972 1972 establishments in Michigan