Wells Fargo CEO says bank plans to boost auto lending

Bloomberg News//May 21, 2018//

Listen to this article

Wells Fargo & Co. Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan said the bank is ready to increase lending for car sales after pulling back last year, and is now looking with concern at the commercial real estate market.

“There are some markets that we’re a little bit concerned about,” Sloan said Monday in an interview with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television. In auto lending, “we’ve pulled back enough and now we’re going to be growing that business again.”

The bank is concerned about some recent commercial real estate activity, he added. The San Francisco-based company likes that business, but some transactions today seem a bit “frothy,” he said.

Wells Fargo decided to pull back from car financing in mid-2017 and tighten underwriting standards. The decision came as a drop in vehicle resale prices made it harder for lenders to blunt losses by repossessing cars when borrowers default.

Like this article? Gain access to all of our great content with a month-to-month subscription. Start your subscription here.