Ally Financial - Ally Finance

Ally Financial Inc., previously known as GMAC Inc. (an acronym for General Motors Acceptance Corporation), is an American bank holding company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States.

The company provides a range of financial services including auto financing, corporate financing, insurance, and online banking. Ally is one of the top auto lenders in the U.S. by volume.

History

The company was founded in 1919 by General Motors Corporation as the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) to be a provider of financing to automotive customers. Original offices were located in Detroit, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Toronto. Over the following decades the business expanded to include insurance, online banking, mortgage operations, and commercial finance.

In 1985, GMAC formed GMAC Mortgage and acquired Colonial Mortgage as well as the servicing arm of Norwest Mortgage. In 1999, GMAC Mortgage purchased ditech.com. In 2005, the company formed Residential Capital (ResCap) as a holding company for its mortgage operations.

In 2006, General Motors Corporation sold a 51% interest in GMAC to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity company. Also that year, GMAC divested a controlling interest of GMAC Commercial Holdings, its real estate division, and Capmark Financial Group to Goldman Sachs, KKR and Five Mile Capital Partners. In 2009, Capmark filed for bankruptcy and its North American loan origination and servicing business was acquired by Berkadia, a joint venture of Leucadia and Berkshire Hathaway.

On December, 24 2008, the Federal Reserve accepted then-GMAC's application to become a bank holding company. As a result of losses in the company's former ResCap subsidiary, the United States Treasury invested $17.2 billion in the company in 2008-2009. The Treasury would eventually recover $19.6 billion from this investment by selling its remaining stake in the business, by then known as Ally, in 2014.

On May 15, 2009, GMAC's banking unit changed its name to Ally Bank. A year later, GMAC announced that it re-branded itself as Ally Financial. The company went public in April 2014 and in 2015 moved its headquarters to One Detroit Center, Michigan.

Current Operations

Ally Auto

Along with Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Capital One, and JP Morgan Chase, Ally is one of the top auto lenders in the U.S. by volume.

The company's Global Automotive Services offer retail auto financing and leasing; dealer lines of credit for vehicle inventory, equipment or facilities; insurance coverage including retail vehicle service contracts and commercial insurance; and re-marketing services through physical auctions and online services.

SmartAuction

SmartAuction is an industry-leading resource where a network of more than 8,000 auto industry professionals access daily, live auto actions. Through its website and intuitive mobile app, SmartAuction provides a trusted platform for the purchase and sale of used vehicles. The platform lists 22,000 vehicles each day. More than 5 million vehicles have been sold since it launched in 2000.

Ally Bank

Ally Bank is a direct bank with over $55 billion in customer deposits also and was rated the best online bank by Money Magazine in every year since 2012. Ally Bank offers savings products, including certificates of deposit (CDs), online savings accounts, interest checking accounts, and money market accounts. Ally Bank is a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Ally Corporate Finance

The company's corporate finance division provides capital to businesses in various industries.

2013 Discrimination settlement

In December 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a settlement with Ally Financial to resolve alleged discrimination in its indirect auto lending program. According to the consent order, Ally charged African American borrowers an average of 29 basis points more than similarly situated White borrowers, Hispanic borrowers 20 basis points more than White borrowers, and Asian/Pacific Islanders 22 basis points more than White borrowers. The CFPB concluded that these disparities were statistically significant, based on race, and not based on credit worthiness or objective criteria related to borrower risk. The CFPB also alleged that the higher markups resulted from Ally’s specific policy and practice of allowing dealers to mark up a consumer’s interest rate above Ally’s established buy rate and then compensating dealers based on the markup. Under the terms of the consent order, Ally was required to establish a compliance committee, submit a compliance pla n to the CFPB and Department of Justice (DOJ) for review, with the option to submit a non-discretionary dealer compensation plan to the CFPB and DOJ for review, and pay $80 million in consumer monetary damages and $18 million in civil penalties.

Sponsorships

Ally sponsors the Miami Auto Show.

Ally sponsors the TIME Dealer of the Year Award through 2021.