Santander Consumer Holdings USA on Monday delayed the release of its quarterly results amid ongoing accounting woes.
The subprime auto lender – a unit of the Spanish banking giant Banco Santander – initially planned to release its earnings on Wednesday, July 27. But it said in a news release that its financial statements have "not yet been completed" due to discrepancies between current and former accountants over the way it calculates its provision for credit losses.
Santander Consumer did not set a new date for the results but said in the release that the company is "working diligently" to resolve the matter and reschedule its call with investors.
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Big banks began ceding market share to midsize and small subprime auto lenders, who they said were taking too many risks. Now prominent midsize player Santander Consumer is putting on the brakes and complaining about small, overly daring rivals. How bad a sign is that?
April 27 -
The Dallas-based subprime consumer lender backed off controversial changes to its method for calculating its quarterly provisions for loan losses, forcing it to revise earnings downward for the last two years. It also announced that it had found more accounting issues.
March 31 -
Chargeoffs jumped 13% at the Dallas lender, and its warning that they could increase further because of deterioration in subprime auto lending set off alarm bells about the broader consumer finance market.
January 27 -
The auto lender has changed the way it calculates its closely-watched provision for credit losses, a move that added to third-quarter profits and raised questions about the transparency of its loan book.
October 29
Earnings statements from prior quarters could be affected, the company said. No additional details were provided.
The delay appears to mark the latest fallout from the company's decision last fall to change its method for calculating loan losses.
The accounting change raised questions
The change also
Santander Consumer's decision to delay its second-quarter results also follows a shake-up at the board level. Earlier this month Blythe Masters, chief executive at Digital Asset Holdings,
Masters was replaced by William Rainer, a member of the Santander Consumer board and also former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
