Auto financing picks up, but banks remain cautious: The News

By Hina Mahgul Rind

KARACHI: After a two-year gap, banks have started reviewing their policy on auto finance and have slightly increased auto financing with stringent conditions, said Atif Zafar, auto analyst at JS Research.

Car sales were improving and one of the reasons was that auto finance along with restoring economic confidence had reduced interest rates and seasonal effects, he added.

Auto finance was at its peak during 2006-2007 and its share in car sales was 70 per cent to 75per cent, however in the later years it was almost stooped due to higher interest rates, and most importantly, auto finance default rate was very high and recovery rate was very low which forced banks to do critical review of their auto finance product, he said.

After this some of the banks completely stopped auto financing and some opted very stringent policy, entertaining their reliable customers only. At present its share in the sales is 30 per cent.

The current market scenario of consumer car financing shows that only few of the banks are doing car financing and some of the key players are Meezan Bank, Dubai Islamic, Faysal Bank, MCB Bank, HBL and Bank Alfalah. On the other hand, Citibank, UBL Ameen and Standard Chartered Bank and leasing companies had completely stopped this product, said a market source.

At present, interest rates at which banks are extending auto finance ranges between 17 and 22per cent. Initially, minimum equity was 30 per cent but banks have reduced it to 20 per cent to attract more customers.

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