COLUMBUS, Ohio— Huntington is expanding its auto dealer financing business into five New England states: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

"We currently are the number one auto dealer lender in Ohio and Kentucky and have doubled market share in most of our markets this year," said Nick Stanutz, Huntington senior executive vice president and head of the auto finance and dealer services group. "Our success in the Midwest demonstrates that we have a winning business model that we can now expand to other regions of the country."  

Stanutz cites Huntington's award-winning customer service and the company's consistent standards in underwriting, pricing, and funding as the reasons for Huntington's expanding market share growth in the Midwest. "We believe that auto dealers in New England will be attracted to Huntington as a lender with a proven track record of consistent credit underwriting and superior customer service, including funding," he said.

The company expects to add 13 jobs in the next six months to support the sales and underwriting functions of the expansion, to be located within the new market areas. Huntington anticipates that it will offer financing options to approximately 500 dealers in the northern New England area over the coming year.  

Huntington has provided new- and used-automobile financing and dealer services throughout the Midwest since the early 1950s, and currently serves customers in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The company also delivers comprehensive banking services for many of its auto dealer customers.

In the second quarter of 2010, Huntington's market share for auto dealer lending in Ohio was 11.8 percent as compared to 5.4 percent in 2009. Huntington's market share in Indiana climbed to 8.5 percent from 4.3 percent last year and made the leap to 12.9 percent from 6.0 percent in Kentucky.