ABS car loans rebounding to pre-recession levels

After a substantial decline during the recession, the automotive sector has bounced back the past couple years, with consumer credit reports revealing that car sales and auto loans are climbing.

According to a recent article by Reuters, asset-based securities (ABS) car loans are starting to make a comeback.

"Many subprime deals before the crisis employed pre-funding and all those structures which had revolving periods got repaid in the post-crisis years," Martin Attea, managing director of the securitized products origination group at Barclays, told the source. "There were no defaults in such products so it is not surprising to see investors overwhelmingly supporting these structures in the last two weeks."

The news source reported that both Ally Financial and Santander Consumer USA recently handed out their first non-prime ABS auto loans since 2007.

Americans borrowed at increasing rates in 2012, particularly when it came to automotive purchases. A recent report by the Federal Reserve found that consumer debt increased $16.1 billion in Novemb

Overall, consumer debt achieved a 5.2 percent year-over-year increase through November, totaling nearly $2.8 trillion.