Huntington Wins 2009 Auto Finance Excellence Award for its Asset-Backed Deals

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Huntington National Bank's Auto Finance & Dealer Services group has been awarded a 2009 Auto Finance Excellence Award by Auto Finance News. The award is presented annually to companies that have achieved notable success or contributed greatly to the auto finance industry.

Huntington's Auto Finance & Dealer Services group was recognized for engineering the first auto asset-backed securitization deals, following the downturn in the market last year. The deals were part of the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF), and helped to reestablish this market for the benefit of auto dealers and financiers. Huntington was honored for doing its part to get capital flowing again, and to helping to restore the consumer credit markets to normalcy.

"Huntington is committed to the Midwest, and to doing whatever we can to help new vehicle franchised dealers in the Midwest rebound," said Nick Stanutz, senior executive vice president and Auto Finance & Dealer Services group executive. "We have a great team of bankers here, who worked many long hours with our partners, Barclays Capital, to execute the deals that were aimed at helping the auto market."

The Auto Finance Excellence Awards are presented annually by Auto Finance News, the industry's leading publication, and Royal Media Group, the periodical's publisher, at the yearly Auto Finance Summit, held recently in Las Vegas, Nev.

About Huntington

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated is a $53 billion regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Through its affiliated companies, Huntington has been providing a full range of financial services including checking, loans, savings, insurance and investment services to customers for 143 years. Huntington also offers retail and commercial financial services online at huntington.com; through its technologically advanced, telephone bank; and through its network of nearly 1,400 ATMs.

SOURCE Huntington Bancshares Incorporated

Released December 15, 2009