Auto lending “stretched”

Auto-loan balances surpassed $1 trillion in the first quarter, a record, growing 11% from the year-earlier period. James Dimon, JP Morgan Chase & Co chief executive, has described the auto-lending market as “a little stretched” in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Dimon said that while he does not view an auto-market downturn as imminent, he does see increased risk due to higher default rates from increased sub-prime lending, the growing use of longer repayment periods for borrowers and the potential for used-car prices to drop in coming years, which could hurt the value of lenders’ collateral when borrowers default.

At J.P. Morgan, Dimon said the bank is careful on the structure of leasing transactions and does “very little sub-prime.” J.P. Morgan’s auto-related net charge-offs fell to 0.44% in the first quarter from 0.5% in the previous quarter, but were up from 0.38% in the year-earlier period.