The Subprime Auto Loan Bubble Bursts

`` Orders to invest in the $390 million debt deal were four times greater than the amount of available securities. What is backing many of these securities? Auto loans made to people who have been in bankruptcy. The average interest rate on loans bundled into Prestige's latest offering, for example, is 18.6 percent, up slightly from a similar offering rolled out a year earlier. Since 2009, total auto loan securitizations have surged 150 percent, to $17.6 billion last year, though some estimates have put the total volume even higher.''