Wednesday, September 19, 2018

A Look at the Growth of General Motors Acceptance Corporation


As a Principal of Wilmington Capital Securities/RBC, Derek Bryson Park, PhD, possesses more than 25 years of experience. Over the course of his career, Derek Bryson Park has served in leadership positions with a number of organizations, including Cohane Rafferty Securities/Lehman Brothers, where he was responsible for securing the 1998 sale of Wells Fargo Mortgage Bank to General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC).

Through their respective captive finance companies, the nation's top automakers, including General Motors, have historically been among the leading nonbank providers of consumer credit in the United States. While these financing arms were largely created to facilitate the sale of the parent company's primary products and associated services, many diversified their offerings to include financial services outside of the auto industry. An example of this diversification can be found in GMAC, which was founded in 1919. 

The diversification of GMAC began in 1925, when the entity began offering auto-related insurance. However, one of the biggest changes in the company occurred decades later, in the mid-1980s, when GMAC entered the mortgage servicing business by forming GMAC Mortgage Corporation. 

Following the acquisition of Colonial Mortgage Service Company and Norwest Corporation's loan-servicing portfolio, GMAC Mortgage Corporation quickly became one of the largest mortgage servicers in the United States. GMAC Mortgage's growth continued through the 1990s, a decade that the company capped off with the acquisition of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Service and the purchase of Wells Fargo Mortgage Bank. 

GMAC Mortgage went on to acquire Ditech Funding Corp. and to form California mortgage lender CalDirect. In 2010, GMAC transformed into Ally Financial, which continues to provide home loans and a number of other financial services.