The bankruptcies of Tricolor and PrimaLend marked the first major insolvencies that the U.S. auto lending industry had seen in years. According to industry observers, they serve as a wake-up call for lenders that may have grown too comfortable with minimal oversight and few consequences.
Deportation policies and due diligence blind spots are exposing hidden risks in the U.S. consumer ABS market. The market is facing a new kind of crisis — not of defaulting borrowers, but of disappearing ones. As mass deportations and tightening immigration enforcement under the Trump administration continue, lenders are grappling with the fallout: when borrowers are suddenly deported or lose...
When a lender falls, it’s tempting to believe it is an isolated failure. When a second lender fails, it’s time to look for broader patterns of stress in corners of the market. For subprime auto and broader consumer lending, PrimaLend’s chapter 11 bankruptcy, after months of missed interest payments and mounting creditor pressure, should be a catalyst for parties to re-evaluate how they conduct...
In a troubling development for the broader subprime auto and asset-backed securities markets, several auto loans tied to Tricolor Auto were found to contain duplicate vehicle identification numbers (VINs), suggesting that the same vehicles were pledged as collateral in more than one transaction. An obvious issue hidden in a blind spot that indicates failure of attention, rather than...
With the recent bankruptcy filing by Tricolor Holdings, many industry leaders are attempting to predict how this will impact subprime auto finance for the remainder of the year and beyond. Joseph Cioffi and Nicole Zatserkovniy, attorneys in the Bankruptcy, Creditors’ Rights + Finance Practice Group at Davis+Gilbert, were extensively quoted in SubPrime Auto Finance News following their analysis...
Subprime auto’s long, smooth ride through the pandemic, recession, and changes in administrations has come to a screeching halt with the chapter 7 bankruptcy of Tricolor on September 10, 2025. Whether the practices at Tricolor are an anomaly or an example of more widespread problems or irregularities at other lenders, the truth is out there – and it’s likely to be found. Weak markets, like the...
What do you get when you add post-election uncertainty to pre-election “economic contradictions?” Many see trouble on the way, but after a period of mixed data and projections concerning interest rates, consumer spending and borrowing, and of course, election results, the months ahead promise to bring some clarity to subprime auto. Below is a review of recent performance and anticipated events on...
