Santander Consumer USA Holdings in Dallas has named a former president of Ally Financial and a former Treasury Department official to its board.
The $39 billion-asset subprime auto lender said in a regulatory filing that William Muir was appointed as an independent director to the board. Muir will serve on the audit and risk committees. His term will expire at the 2017 annual meeting of stockholders.
Muir joined the auto lender GMAC — which was renamed Ally Financial in 2010 — in the 1990s, became its president in 2004 and held the job until retiring in 2014, the year the Detroit company went public. During his Ally career he oversaw the dealer financial services business and was responsible for its global auto finance, insurance, vehicles remarketing and servicing operations. He was also a director of the company’s Ally Bank unit.
Meanwhile, the company also appointed Edith Holiday to its board. Her term lasts until next year’s annual meeting, too. She will serve on the company’s compensation and regulatory and compliance oversight committees.
Holiday served in various roles at the Treasury Department during the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. She was the first woman to serve as general counsel of the Treasury, from 1989 to 1990.
Muir and Holiday joined the board Nov. 29, the same day that director Gerald Plush resigned. A Santander spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment on whether Santander Consumer had added a board seat or had a vacant seat.
Santander has been beset by credit problems tied to its personal loan business that was discontinued in 2015. The company has restated earnings three times over the past year due in part to problems with the way it calculated provisions for credit losses.
