NEW YORK – The Board of Directors of GMAC Financial Services (GMAC) today named Michael A. Carpenter, a board member with extensive financial services experience, chief executive officer. The board has given Carpenter the responsibility to accelerate the strategic and operational changes necessary to focus GMAC on its core auto finance and related businesses.

Franklin W. Hobbs, GMAC chairman, said, “Mike Carpenter is a world-class CEO, and the board has great confidence that he is the right leader for GMAC at this pivotal moment. GMAC will benefit from Mike’s broad and deep experience in banking, capital markets, turnarounds and corporate strategy. In addition, as a GMAC board member, he has first-hand knowledge of GMAC and the challenges and opportunities the company faces in its drive to return to sustained profitability and to repay taxpayers.”

Carpenter succeeds Alvaro de Molina, who has resigned as CEO and a director. Carpenter, 62, has served on the GMAC board since May 2009. His previous experience includes CEO positions at Citigroup’s Global Corporate & Investment Bank, Salomon Smith Barney, Travelers Life & Annuity and Kidder Peabody. During his 35-year career, Carpenter has also held senior positions at GE Capital, General Electric and Boston Consulting Group.

“I am honored by the opportunity to lead GMAC at this critical juncture,” Carpenter said, pledging to work with a sense of urgency to make GMAC the premier provider of auto finance and related services for both dealers and consumers across the country.

Carpenter noted that the challenges facing GMAC are substantial, but he expressed confidence that the company and its leadership have the resolve, talent and vision to restore its fiscal health and build on its unique franchise.

“A renewed GMAC is crucial to business and public sector efforts to bolster the U.S. auto industry, and we have a special obligation to the public to do everything we can to ensure GMAC succeeds,” Carpenter said. His mission, he noted, includes operating GMAC “at the rigorous standards required of a bank holding company, resolving the difficult issues we face with the mortgage business, and repaying in full the funds the U.S. government has invested in GMAC.”

The board of GMAC has requested that the U.S. Department of the Treasury postpone its decision on the planned follow-on investment of Troubled Asset Relief Program funds in GMAC until Carpenter and the management of GMAC have assessed the current situation and can advise the board and Treasury regarding the appropriate amount and form of such funding.

Carpenter has resigned from the board of CIT Group in order to devote his full attention to his new role at GMAC.

Chrysler Group LLC officials made it clear last Wednesday that securing the financing needs of its dealers will be key to realizing its $500 million, five-year plan. GMAC Financial Services responded the following day by saying that it’s quickly ramping up efforts to becoming the preferred financing source of Chrysler dealers and customers.

According to GMAC’s Nov. 5 statement, the company expects more than 90 percent of the original 1,474 Chrysler dealers which originally applied for wholesale financing to be approved in the near future. GMAC currently provides wholesale financing for 67 percent of Chrysler’s U.S. dealers and 85 percent (1,247 dealers) of Chrysler’s inventory in Canada.

Officials added that 84 Chrysler dealers are in final negotiations for wholesale financing. Fifty-eight dealers have already received conditional approval, including 41 dealerships that had problematic real-estate and working capital loans under Chrysler Financial. Eighty-five dealerships, or less than 6 percent, were notified in June that they were not approved for wholesale financing, a majority of which were previously on “finance hold” with Chrysler financial.

When GMAC was tapped to become Chrysler Group’s preferred lender in April, the company said it would enter a six-month process to vet Chrysler’s dealers for wholesale credit lines. And as of Sept. 30, GMAC’s outstanding balance of wholesale financing of Chrysler dealers was approximately $3.3 billion.

Additionally, GMAC said it helped originate $720 million Chrysler retail loans in October, or 24 percent of Chrysler’s U.S. retail sales.

GMAC Financial Services reported a third-quarter 2009 net loss of $767 million, an improvement from the net loss of $2.5 billion in the year-ago period.

While overall third-quarter results were adversely affected by losses in GMAC’s mortgage operations, the company made improvements in its automotive finance division and continues to focus its efforts in that segment.

“Our focus is on growing operations where we can leverage our strengths,” said GMAC CEO Alvaro G. de Molina. “We have made major strides in bringing the Chrysler business on line, we launched a competitive dealer program that leverages our full suite of auto products, and Ally Bank continues to attract customers.”

GMAC’s global automotive finance business reported third quarter 2009 pre-tax income from continuing operations of $395 million, compared to a pre-tax loss from continuing operations of $379 million year-ago period. Continuing operations in the segment were driven by the continued normalization of origination volumes, credit improvement and used vehicle prices.

Total consumer financing originations were $7.7 billion in the third quarter, which included $6.8 billion of new originations, approximately $800 million of used originations and approximately $100 million of new leases. The captive finance company said originations were lower than the $13.3 billion reported in the third quarter 2008, because of a decrease in U.S. vehicle sales and lower leasing levels.

However, origination levels continued to trend upward as they increased 26 percent from $6.1 billion in the second quarter 2009. The increase from last quarter includes improved pricing competitiveness, an increase in Chrysler originations and the effect of the Cash for Clunkers program, according to GMAC.

Credit losses increased in the third quarter to 3.29 percent of managed retail assets, versus 1.56 percent in the year-ago period. The increase is primarily due to a standardization of GMAC’s charge-off policy to conform to regulatory requirements, the effect of a smaller asset base, and the underlying performance of certain subprime portfolios.

Delinquencies, which are contracts more than 30-days past due, also increased to 3.76 percent in the third quarter, compared to 2.77 percent in the third quarter 2008 and 3.48 percent in the second quarter 2009. Delinquency trends have been negatively affected by higher unemployment and a smaller asset portfolio in North America and Europe.