A-G’s Office Investigates Santander Bank’s Auto Loan Program

The Massachusetts attorney general's office is investigating Santander bank's auto lending business over concerns that the company may be engaged in the type of predatory practices that, on a larger scale, led to the mortgage and financial crises.

The office is looking at whether Santander lent to borrowers who were unlikely to repay the money and sold those loans to Wall Street, where they were packaged into securities and resold to investors.

A spokesman for Attorney General Martha Coakley tells The Boston Globe the office has subpoenaed Santander's U.S. auto finance company to produce related documents.

Santander in a statement said it is cooperating with investigators and its policy is ``to comply with all lending and loan servicing laws as well as the rules and guidance of our supervisors and regulators.''