Auto Finance News is pleased to announce that Robert Machanic, vice president of capital markets and treasury at Global Lending Services, will join a session on the state of the auto asset-backed securitization market during the inaugural Auto Finance Capital Summit, taking place May 11-12 at JW Marriott in Nashville, Tenn. 

Machanic will join the keynote panel, “The state of auto ABS in 2026” at 9:15 a.m. local time on May 11.  

View the full event agenda. 

He has more than 12 years of experience in structured finance with a focus on auto loan and lease capital markets. For the past seven years, he has helped build and lead the capital markets and treasury function at subprime auto lender GLS.  

Prior to GLS, he was on the capital markets team at Santander Consumer USA for three years, where he helped build the lender’s first auto lease ABS deal. 

GLS anticipates reaching $8 billion in originations this year following its acquisition by global investment firm Sixth Street, which closed in February. 

Scheduled to join Machanic on the panel are: 

• Kayvan Darouian, director of consumer ABS research at Deutsche Bank; 

• Michael Girard, senior director of asset-backed securities North America at Fitch Ratings; and 

• James Schofield, president and chief operating officer at Toyota Financial Savings Bank. 

The panel will discuss:  

• Subprime and prime credit bifurcation;  

• Issuer performance divergence;   

• Spread dynamics and relative value; and  

• Capital structure resilience.   

Auto Finance Capital Summit will provide in-depth conversations on trends across capital markets. Attendees will tap into key information to form strategies around capital stress testing, fraud mitigation, risk-based pricing and building successful treasury risk frameworks through networking opportunities. 

Learn more about Auto Finance Capital Summit and register here.