FORT WORTH, Texas – AmeriCredit Corp. announced a net loss of $1.7 million for its fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30, 2008. AmeriCredit reported net income of $61.8 million for the same period a year earlier.

The allowance for loan losses as a percentage of finance receivables increased to 6.8 percent at Sept. 30, 2008, from 6.3 percent at June 30, 2008.

Originations were $579.3 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008, compared to $2.4 billion for the same quarter a year ago. Finance receivables totaled $14.1 billion at Sept. 30, 2008, compared to $16.4 billion during the year-ago period.

“During the September quarter, we purchased $579 million of new originations, down from $780 million last quarter. The decline in originations volume is driven internally by our focus on preserving liquidity in light of the current capital markets environment and externally by a reduction in new and used car demand,” Dan Berce, President and CEO. “Earlier this year, in an effort to reduce origination volume, we significantly tightened credit guidelines and lifted the minimum required credit scores. While still early, key performance metrics, such as delinquency rates, on the 2008 vintage originations are encouraging.”

Annualized net charge-offs totaled 7.3 percent of average finance receivables for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2008, compared to 5.4 percent for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2007. Finance receivables 31-to-60 days delinquent were 7.4 percent of the portfolio at Sept. 30, 2008, compared to 5.5 percent at Sept. 30, 2007. Accounts more than 60 days delinquent were 3.6 percent of the portfolio, compared to 2.6 percent a year ago.

Unrestricted cash was $243.8 million at Sept. 30, 2008, excluding $112.3 million of investment in The Reserve Primary Money Market Fund, which has been reclassified to Investment in money market fund due to the fund’s temporary suspension of distributions. The company has additional liquidity of approximately $150 million from borrowing capacity on unpledged eligible receivables at Sept. 30, 2008. During the September 2008 quarter, AmeriCredit retired $114.7 million of its 1.75 percent convertible notes.