NAF ASSOCIATION HOLDS 12TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE

Fort Worth, Tex. (June 6, 2008) ---- The National Automotive Finance (NAF) Association held its 12th Annual Non-Prime Auto Financing Conference in Fort Worth June 4 to 6. "The conference is always planned by our members who work in the industry," says Jack Tracey, the association's executive director, "and this year the sagging economy is on everyone's mind so the program responded to that concern."

Keynote speaker, Dr. Bernard L. Weinstein, Institute of Applied Economics, University of North Texas, started off the program talking about the current economic pressures and whether or not the economy is in recession. He pointed to falling employment, declining industrial production and price inflation, among other signs but, he said, "We will survive this."

Session 8, State of the Non-Prime Industry, also focused on today's economy. Jim Bass, NAF Association treasurer, facilitated a panel made up of: Mark Floyd, AmeriCredit; Dan Leonard, Triad; and Tommy A. Moore, Jr., First Investors Financial Services Group, Inc. Panel members see the consumer struggling with underemployment and the resulting loss of income as a major concern. All agree that a focus on fundamentals is essential and expressed the willingness to work with customers who are willing to pay. Building relationships, working consultatively, looking for efficient dealers are strategies mentioned. Panel members ranged from somewhat optimistic to not very optimistic about current conditions and feel the credit markets are in recession. They do not see conditions resulting in shorter terms but probably preventing a greater move to 84 month terms. Moving forward, they suggest looking for efficiency, profitability and portfolio quality.

Panels and individual presenters kept those in attendance updated on market conditions and on changes and innovations. Amy Martin, Standard & Poor's, for example, was cautiously optimistic about auto backed securitizations. The conference topics this year focused more on operations, less on marketing.

"Registrations increased over last year's," said Tracey, "probably due, at least in part, to our reduction of the registration fee in light of economic factors that reduced travel budgets."

The NAF Association's Annual Non-Prime Automotive Financing Survey, conducted by outside consultant, BenchMark Consulting International, is underway and will be published this summer. Preliminary results, presented during the association's annual meeting, indicate increases in new contract volume and portfolio sizes and a slight increase in credit quality. Negative trends seem to continue regarding repossession rates and losses. Information is still being tabulated.

Also during the annual meeting, members voted on board of director positions. The following actions were taken:

Renewing Board Seats:

ACS, Nancy McDonald
AmeriCredit, Mark Floyd
Capital One Auto Finance, Steve Braskamp
CIQ/VOISYS, Paul Snider
CitiFinancial, John Fietz
Connections Insights, Marguerite Watanabe
Crescent Bank & Trust, Richard Boyce
Easterns Automotive, Nick Champeau
Sekurus/On Time, Ashley Herndon
Travelers Automotive Finance, Dave Martins
Williams & Stazzone Insurance, Joe Stazzone

New representative on Board:

Fireside Bank, Jim Landy (replaces Fred Reichelt)
Wells Fargo Auto Finance, Todd Gunderson (replaces Lou Loquasto)

New board members:

Southside Financial Group, Gary Perdue
Wolters Klurer/AppOne Inc., Lee Domingue
Santander/Drive, representative to be named

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