Something is broken in Washington’s approach to consumer finance, and it isn’t the auto lending industry.
A recent request for information (RFI) about vehicle repossessions practices by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) paints a picture of an industry run amok, preying on vulnerable consumers and seizing cars with reckless abandon. It’s a compelling narrative. It’s also wrong. Here are the facts that some policymakers and their outside advocates seem determined to ignore.
The vehicle finance industry is one of the great engines of American economic mobility. It contributed an estimated $126 billion to U.S. GDP in 2023 and supports roughly 680,000 jobs. A vast supply chain of manufacturers, dealers, parts suppliers and repair shops adds another $532 billion to GDP and sustains 3.6 million more jobs. It generates $25 billion in tax revenue. And most critically, it puts Americans behind the wheel to get to work, to school, to the doctor, to opportunity.
For millions of Americans, particularly those with limited or imperfect credit, vehicle financing isn’t a luxury. It’s the bridge between where they are and where they need to go.
Now consider repossession, the centerpiece of the current political alarm being rung by Senator Warren. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s own January 2025 study found that more than 99% of financed vehicles remained in the buyer’s possession. In an average month between 2018 and 2022, repossessions fluctuated between nearly zero and 0.75% of open accounts. Read that again: more than 99% success. By any reasonable standard, this is an industry that works.
Critics point to recent data showing repossession numbers at their highest since 2009, hoping consumers will infer we are on the cusp of a financial crisis. But context matters. The total amount of credit (loans) available or outstanding in the economy in 2025 is 35% larger than in 2009. The repossession rate in 2025 was 27% lower than the 2009 peak. That’s not a crisis; that’s an industry absorbing post-pandemic economic strain while serving far more consumers than it did a decade and a half ago. What’s more, between 22 and 30% of repossessed vehicles are returned to borrowers after the resolution of delinquencies — meaning the lender and borrower reach an agreement and the car goes back to the consumer. The effective repossession rate is even lower, then, than the already-small headline number suggests.
The suggestion that repossessions happen without warning is equally misleading. A typical repossession follows months of escalating communication — billing statements, late payment notices, default notifications, and pre-repossession notices including the right to cure. Finance companies estimate that repossession occurs, on average, only after multiple months of a consumer failing to engage. This is not an ambush. It is the end of a long road of attempted resolution.
Repossession of a vehicle is an outcome that neither consumers nor vehicle finance companies want. Such actions are disruptive to the consumer. Creditors are committed to keeping their customers in their vehicles, maintaining the financing relationship, and avoiding the significant financial cost that repossession entails. Vehicle finance companies have every incentive to avoid repossession because they lose more money in the process than other delinquency resolution arrangements.
The regulatory framework governing vehicle repossession is already robust. State laws have regulated this space for decades. State law governs repossession and rigorous state and federal exams and enforcement authority ensure compliance by state-licensed entities and national banks.
The real danger isn’t repossession; it’s overregulation. Policy proposals that restrict credit availability in the name of consumer protection will, paradoxically, hurt the very consumers they claim to help. Tightening the screws on an industry with a 99% success rate won’t protect consumers. It will lock them out of the vehicles they need to live, work, and build financial futures.
The vehicle finance industry kept its doors open throughout the pandemic, working with tens of thousands of borrowers facing unprecedented financial strain. It continues to work with consumers to find ways to keep them in their vehicles and serve consumers across income levels and credit tiers, enabling the kind of economic participation that defines the American promise.
Washington should be looking for ways to strengthen that promise, not undermine it with regulation built on misleading narratives and incomplete data. The road to economic mobility runs through access to credit. Let’s not put up roadblocks.
Celia Winslow is president and CEO of the American Financial Services Association, the national trade association for the consumer credit industry.
