Ally Financial Inc. (known as GMAC until 2010) is a bank holding company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered at Ally Detroit Center in Detroit, Michigan. The company provides financial services including car finance, online banking via a direct bank, corporate lending, vehicle insurance, mortgage loans, and other related financing services such as installment sale and lease agreements. Ally is one of the largest car finance companies in the U.S. It provides car financing and leasing for 4.1 million customers and originated 1.2 million car loans in 2023. It is on the list of largest banks in the United States by assets and has 2.0 million depositors. The company has sold more than 5 million vehicles, including 505,000 vehicles sold in 2023 via its SmartAuction online marketplace for auto auctions, launched in 2000.

History

1919-1990

The company was founded in 1919 by General Motors (GM) as the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) to provide financing to automotive customers. In 1939, the company founded Motors Insurance Corporation and entered the vehicle insurance market. In 1985, while GM was under the leadership of Roger Smith, who sought to diversify the company, GMAC formed GMAC Mortgage and acquired Colonial Mortgage as well as the servicing arm of Norwest Mortgage, which included an $11 billion mortgage portfolio.

1991-2009

In 1991, the company was forced to write-off $275 million in bad debt as part of a $436 million loss suffered from fraud committed by John McNamara, who ran a Ponzi scheme. In 1998, the company formed GMAC Real Estate. In 1999, GMAC Mortgage acquired Ditech. In 2000, the company formed GMAC Bank, a direct bank. In 2005, the company formed GMAC ResCap as a holding company for its mortgage operations. In 2006, General Motors sold a 51% interest in GMAC to Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm. Also that year, GMAC sold a controlling interest of GMAC Commercial Holdings (its real estate division renamed Capmark) to Goldman Sachs, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Five Mile Capital Partners. GMAC Real Estate was sold to Brookfield Asset Management. In 2009, Capmark filed for bankruptcy and its North American loan origination and servicing business was acquired by Berkadia, a joint venture of Leucadia National and Berkshire Hathaway. On December 24, 2008, the Federal Reserve accepted the company's application to become a bank holding company. In January 2009, the company closed Nuvell Financial Services, its subprime lending division. As a result of losses in GMAC ResCap, a subsidiary of the company, the United States Department of the Treasury invested $17.2 billion in the company in 2008–2009. The Treasury sold its last stake in the company in 2014, recovering $19.6 billion from its $17.2 billion investment. In April 2009 the bank announced plans to move its Charlotte office from Ballantyne to 106525 sqft on four floors of 440 South Church, with possible expansion later. At the time, the bank had 265 Charlotte employees in three business units. In May 2009, GMAC Bank was rebranded as Ally Bank.

2010-2019

In May 2010, GMAC re-branded itself as Ally Financial. In September 2010, the company sold its resort finance business to Centerbridge Partners. In 2012, the company sold its Canadian banking operations to Royal Bank of Canada for $3.8 billion. In April 2014, it became a public company via an initial public offering. In 2015, it moved its headquarters to One Detroit Center, which was subsequently renamed Ally Detroit Center. In June 2016, the company acquired TradeKing, a stockbrokerage, for $275 million, which was re-branded as Ally Invest. In May 2016, Ally Bank re-entered the mortgage business with the launch of its direct-to-consumer offering called Ally Home. In April 2019, Ally Home partnered with Better.com for mortgage loan selling, processing, mortgage underwriting, and closing services. In October 2019, Ally acquired Health Credit Services (HCS), a technology-focused patient financing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was sold to Synchrony Financial in March 2024.

2020-present

On May 3, 2021, Ally began occupying 725,000 square feet at Ally Charlotte Center. In December 2021, Ally acquired Fair Square Financial, a credit card company, for $750 million and rebranded it as Ally Credit Card.

Awards and recognition

In 2022, the Disability Equality Index (DEI) listed Ally as one of the Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion.

Sponsorships

In 2022, Ally committed to reach equal spending in paid advertising across women's and men's sports programming over the next five years. Sponsorships include:

Legal issues

2013 discrimination settlement

In December 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and United States Department of Justice ordered the company to pay $80 million in consumer monetary damages and $18 million in civil penalties after determining that 235,000 minority borrowers paid higher interest rates for auto loans originated between April 2011 and December 2013 because of the company's discriminatory pricing system. The higher rates resulted from the company's specific policy of allowing dealers to charge, at their discretion, a "dealer markup" above Ally's established "buy rate" and then compensating dealers based on the markup. Ally provided an incentive for dealers to charge higher rates, in violation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.