Toyota Ireland says it has financed purchase of 20,000 new and used cars

Toyota Ireland says it has financed the purchase of over 20,000 new and used cars by Irish customers since it set up a banking operation in November 2017.

A joint venture between the Japanese car giant and the Killeen Group owned by the Mahony family, Toyota Financial Services Ireland now has a loan book in excess of €140 million, according to Steve Tormey, chief executive of Toyota Ireland.

The finance arm provides personal contract plans (PCPs) for Irish buyers of Toyota and Lexus models, but also offers dealer finance, including for capital development. It currently employs 23 staff.

Figures from the Central Bank show that at the end of June last year there were 69,668 PCP loans outstanding, up from 63,066 at the end of 2017. However, it was down slightly on March last year when the figure exceeded 70,000 for the first time.

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The total value of the outstanding PCPs at the end of June was €1.24 billion, with €347 million in new lending in the first six months of 2018, which was 15 per cent lower than the same period in 2017.

The PCP market in Ireland has been largely driven by the opening of financial services arms of the car giants. Volkswagen Financial Services Ireland reported a loan book valued at €506 million at the end of last year, with €312.8 million loaned to customers for new and used vehicles in 2018.

Last week, in answer to a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil spokesman on finance Michael McGrath, the Minister for Finance said the Central Bank "hopes to publish an updated dataset relating to the full PCP reporting population in the near future".

At present the bank does not collect data on PCP contracts in arrears or failure due to non-payment.