Las Vegas-based lender Consumer Portfolio Services Inc, disclosed last month it received a subpoena from the DOJ requesting information in connection with a probe into "subprime automotive finance and related securitization activities." Ally Financial Inc, Credit Acceptance Corp, Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc and General Motors Co's auto financing arm have disclosed similar subpoenas since last August.

In an interview last week, Ally Chief Executive Michael Carpenter told Reuters that comparisons between subprime auto lending and the crisis precipitated by subprime mortgages were "complete garbage," and described the investigations as "fishing" and "a lot of digging around to see what people can find."

Ally said on Monday that Carpenter was retiring and would be succeeded by its head of dealer financial services, Jeffrey Brown, effective immediately.

One focus of the Justice Department's inquiry is whether there was appropriate disclosure made to investors about the quality of securities that are backed by auto loans.

Unlike many of the mortgage bonds that were packaged and sold during the financial crisis, auto loan-backed securities have continued to perform well. The net loss rate for subprime auto loan securities was 4.51 percent in November 2014, below the lowest loss rates recorded before the recession, according to data compiled by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

But delinquencies on auto loans that have been bundled into securities, which often serve as a leading indicator of losses, are elevated.

Around 10 percent of the loans that back subprime auto bonds were at least 30 days delinquent in November, a level that's 13 percent higher than what Bank of America Merrill Lynch strategists consider normal.

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