WASHINGTON — GMAC Financial Services plans to return to the stock markets with an IPO in the next two years, in a move aimed at gradually exiting from government help and eventually repaying its rescue aid, the auto lender’s chief executive said.

GMAC Chief Executive Michael Carpenter’s remarks, made during a congressional hearing Thursday on the government’s intervention in the auto industry during the financial crisis, came as Treasury Department officials declared GMAC well capitalized and able to borrow again after three injections of U.S. taxpayer dollars, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“GMAC is also now able to secure external funding for its ongoing operations, a critical step toward its independence,” the Treasury officials, Jim Millstein and Ron Bloom, said in a joint statement before the Congressional Oversight Panel.

Millstein, the Treasury’s chief restructuring officer, said he didn’t anticipate GMAC needing more government money beyond the U.S. aid it had already received, totaling about $16.3 billion.

GMAC, formerly a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors Co. that is now majority-owned by the U.S. government, provides financing for thousands of GM and Chrysler Group LLC dealerships, as well as their customers. The company ran into trouble in late 2008, as the housing crisis dragged down its mortgage business, Residential Capital LLC, or ResCap, a subprime lender. It also suffered losses from auto loans.

Carpenter also said he didn’t expect GMAC to seek additional government aid. He said an initial public offering would allow the company to begin repaying the U.S. loans, a process that he said could take several years.

While the IPO is unlikely to allow for a full repayment, he said, it would pave the way for subsequent offerings. “This would allow us to return to being an investment-grade credit, reducing our capital requirements, and begin the process of paying back the U.S. taxpayer in full,” he said.

Responding to questions about ResCap, Carpenter said the firm was exploring a number of options. He said the business has been successfully walled off from the rest of the organization, and that a strategic plan was in the works. He added that GMAC was in the process of selling some of its mortgage assets.

Bloom, the administration’s chief auto adviser, said the future of the U.S. auto industry would depend on policy makers’ ability to restore the flow of credit to dealers and their customers. He and Millstein said in their statement that the government remained a “reluctant” shareholder in GMAC and other private firms. They said the Treasury planned to exit from its investment in the auto-finance firm through a gradual sale of shares, but as soon as possible.

They said the administration’s decision to pump billions of dollars into the U.S. auto industry, and GMAC specifically, have steadied the U.S. auto industry, with the value of vehicles made by U.S. auto makers “stabilizing.”

The officials said the Treasury continued to move to wind down certain programs, including an aid program for auto supplies that was expected to end in April.

WASHINGTON – GMAC Inc.’s CEO will testify before a congressional panel next week on the government’s $17.2 billion bailout of the troubled Detroit auto finance company, reported The Detroit News.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, created to oversee the $700 billion Wall Street and auto bailout fund, will hold a hearing Thursday attended by GMAC CEO Michael Carpenter and Chief Financial Officer Robert Hull, and Ron Bloom, the Obama administration’s senior adviser.

The Treasury holds a majority stake in the Detroit lender, which was wholly owned by General Motors until 2006.

Carpenter, a board member, was named CEO in November. The company lost $10.3 billion in 2009 amid heavy losses in its troubled mortgage unit, ResCap.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report last month, criticized the government’s $17.2 billion bailout of GMAC. Its aid has come in three separate rounds, with the latest $3.8 billion infusion on Dec. 30. That includes nearly $900 million the government loaned General Motors to invest in GMAC.

GMAC spokeswoman Gina Proia told The Detroit News the company will share with the panel “details of our turnaround plan.”

In the process, the Treasury Department acquired a 56 percent majority stake in the company, up from its 35.4 percent stake.

GMAC’s bailout and the rescue of GM and Chrysler Group LLC were funded by a total of $86 billion of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Last year, the Treasury Department projected it would lose $30.4 billion on the auto bailout.

GMAC was the only one of the financial institutions subjected to “stress tests” of their financial wherewithal to get more government assistance.

“Treasury has not yet articulated a specific and convincing reason to support the company,” the panel says.

“In the face of criticism about the merits of saving GMAC, Treasury owes the public a more detailed and convincing explanation not only of its rationale for providing substantial assistance to GMAC, but also of its rationale for treating GMAC differently than other stress-tested institutions.”

Treasury officials argue that if it refused to give GMAC more money “after providing assistance to GM and Chrysler, it would undermine its own investments in the automotive companies.”

GMAC said it was committed to repaying the taxpayers.

GMAC Financial Services received a major cash infusion this week, raising $2 billion through a bond issue Wednesday, Feb. 10, CEO Michael Carpenter told Automotive News.

The transaction represents the first time GMAC has been able to access the capital markets since May 2007 and is a major step toward profitability, Carpenter said.

The bond sale also puts GMAC’s objective of paying off the U.S. Treasury Department’s 56 percent share of the company within the lender’s sights.

Several ratings agencies recently upgraded GMAC’s debt rating multiple levels. The goal is for those ratings to reach investment grade. And although GMAC has “a way to go,” Carpenter said it could happen within a year to 18 months.

When the ratings reach investment grade, an initial public offering of the company would be possible, he said.

GMAC’s debt ratings have not been investment grade since 2005, a GMAC spokeswoman said. The higher ratings allow the company to lower its cost of capital.

Recent upgrades made GMAC more appealing to investors. The vote of confidence from the rating agencies followed the Treasury Department’s additional $3.79 billion investment in GMAC in December.

DETROIT – GMAC Financial Services will be added to the DealerTrack credit application network of more than 17,000 dealers as a financing option for their customers.

GMAC will use the strategic relationship to broaden its customer base. The agreement will provide GMAC with access to retail financing applications from essentially all U.S. and Canadian dealers across all manufacturers. The company’s existing dealer customers will benefit from the addition of another application channel. GMAC will also continue to accept applications through the RouteOne system.

“GMAC has taken a series of steps to support the auto industry during the past year, particularly in extending credit to the market,” said Tim Russi, executive vice president for GMAC’s North American Operations. “Our presence on DealerTrack will allow us to bring the nearly 90 years of experience we have in auto finance to a broad and diverse group of dealers seeking vehicle financing for their customers.”

“Our strategy has always been to attract new financing sources, expand our subscribing dealer base and add value to our software applications,” said DealerTrack Chairman and CEO Mark O’Neil. “This will help us achieve all three objectives.”

Russi pointed to the development as further proof of GMAC’s commitment to the industry. “This is a meaningful step in the ongoing growth of our company that will diversify our auto business while helping dealers and their customers obtain broader financing opportunities in a more competitive market,” he said.

Dealers who do not currently have capability to submit retail applications to GMAC through DealerTrack will be invited to enroll. The invitation process will be staggered to reach the large volume of dealers who use DealerTrack, and is expected to be complete in a few months. GMAC will accept financing applications for both new- and used-vehicle sales.

Haunted by losses from its mortgage operation, GMAC Financial Services posted a $5 billion loss for the last three months of 2009. The news, however, was much brighter for the finance company’s auto operations.

GMAC’s mortgage operations, ResCap, lost more than $4 billion during the quarter, as the company incurred a $3.3 billion charge related to its efforts to sell its trouble home lending business.

In contrast, GMAC’s automotive operations earned $369 million during the fourth quarter, compared to a $405 million loss in the year-ago period. Company official said the company’s auto unit will continue to be the main focus going forward.

Another bright spot for the company was its Ally Bank Unit, which reported that deposits rose from $15.9 billion in the third quarter to $16.9 billion.

“GMAC has undergone a significant transformation in 2009, and, as a result, is better positioned to pursue business and market opportunities going forward,” Said Michael Carpenter, CEO of the company. “Key steps during the year included: diversifying the profitable automotive finance business with the addition of Chrysler; launching the Ally Bank brand, which is a key part of our funding profile; strengthening our capital and liquidity positions; and implementing major restructuring actions to minimize risk related to the legacy mortgage business.

“We are encouraged with the progress, and the recent upgrades of our credit ratings demonstrate that the steps we are taking are appropriate and making an impact,” Carpenter added.

Officials said the positive results of its auto financing unit were driven by stronger net financing revenue, which it attributed to improve remarketing gains offsetting losses related to its Nuvell subprime legacy portfolio.

Originations for its North American auto segment came in at $6.6 billion for the quarter, with its U.S. lending segment making up $5.9 billion of that total. For the same period in 2008, originations stood at $1.4 billion, which included $800 million from the U.S. segment.

The company, which received $3.8 billion in a third-round of Federal aid in December, also continued to make progress in expanding its financing footprint to Chrysler dealers and customers. At year end, GMAC completed formal underwriting for 1,474 U.S. Chrysler dealers that applied for standard wholesale credit lines, and approved 94 percent of those dealers for financing.

Additionally, GMAC originated $894 million new-vehicle retail loans for Chrysler, compared to $721 million in the prior quarter.

For all of 2009, the company originated $18.2 billion in retail automotive credit in the United States, with outstanding wholesale credit to dealers totaling $19.1 billion.

WASHINGTON – GMAC Financial Services is likely to be taxed under a new Obama administration proposal to impose a levy on U.S. banks to recoup bailout money — even as General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group are being exempted, reported Automotive News.

The administration hasn’t decided how much each bank would pay or when it would make a final decision on which institutions to include in its proposal, a Treasury Department spokeswoman told Automotive News.

If approved by Congress, the new tax would require banks including J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. to pay a total of $90 billion over 10 years. The revenue would cover most of the expected $117 billion loss to Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. The Bush administration initiated TARP in 2008 to bail out financial institutions.

GMAC’s financial stability is crucial to the auto industry because it provides floorplan financing to GM and Chrysler dealerships and also finances consumer auto loans. GMAC has received a $16.3 billion investment from the federal government, which now owns 56 percent of the lender.

The new tax would apply to companies with more than $50 billion in assets, a Treasury Department fact sheet said. Over 60 percent of the anticipated revenue probably would be paid by the 10 biggest financial institutions.