Finnegan has been vice president and group executive of General Motors and president of GMAC since Nov. 17, 1997. "This promotion recognizes the increasing importance of the GMAC organization to GM," Smith said. "We intend to intensify GMAC's focus on the many growth opportunities in the financial services arena."

John D. Finnegan

Over the last four years, GMAC has grown significantly with serviced assets and net income up 34 percent and 44 percent respectively, over that period. A good deal of this improvement has come in GMAC's North American operations which have grown assets and reduced costs while working more closely with GM's North American automotive-marketing units.

In addition, GMAC's auto financing operations have expanded geographically, entering six new countries over the last three years. GMAC has also continued to diversify outside the automobile-finance business as it has grown its mortgage and insurance businesses both in the United States and overseas into industry-leading positions, and entered into new business areas such as asset-based lending.

Sales of those brands in Europe were 9,510, a 3 percent decrease over sales of 9,838 units during the same month last year. Other regions include: Latin America, with sales of 3,012 units sold, a 39 percent decrease from last year; Asia/Pacific, with 3,196 units sold, a 9 percent decrease; and Middle East/Africa, with 844 units sold, a 32 percent decrease.