AMERICREDIT CORP. /Fort Worth, Texas Lending Firm Is A Real (Sub) Prime-Time Player.(A)

By Steve Watkins

Investor's Business Daily

A tough economy is usually a thorn in the side of any lending business. Whenyou're lending to people who are credit risks, the chances of getting your money back would seem to drop further.

But subprime auto lender Ameri-Credit Corp. has kept growing in the face of a rough economy. Even though it's lending to people with less-than-stellar credit pasts, the firm hasn't had to charge off much of its business to bad loans.

That's mainly because it does a good job of finding decent loan candidates, analysts say. It relies heavily on an internal database that tells it which borrowers are at the most risk of defaulting. It aggressively goes after those as soon as they fall behind. AmeriCredit tracks …