More U.S. borrowers fall behind on their car loans in 3rd qtr

(Corrects to reflect that the lenders are all being investigated but not all have been subpoenaed in paragraph 6)

By Peter Rudegeair

NEW YORK, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The amount of U.S. borrowers that were at least two months behind on their car loan payments jumped sharply in the third quarter, according to a report on Wednesday from Experian Automotive.

The 60-day delinquency rate for U.S. auto loans rose nearly 9 percent to 0.62 percent in the third quarter from the same period in 2013. In contrast, delinquency rates for the industry in the second quarter were unchanged at 0.58 percent from their level a year earlier.

Melinda Zabritski, Experian's senior director of automotive credit, said in a statement the rise in delinquencies was expected given that loans to subprime borrowers have taken up a growing proportion of the auto finance market in recent quarters.

Nearly two out of every five auto loans that were outstanding as of the third quarter went to subprime borrowers, or those with credit scores less than 660 on a scale of 300 to 850, according to Experian Automotive.

The share of auto loans that went to "deep subprime" borrowers with credit scores between 300 and 500 rose to 3.84 percent from 3.57 percent in the third quarter of 2013.

Subprime auto lending practices at banks, auto finance companies and automakers' in-house finance arms have come under regulatory scrutiny in recent months. Law enforcement officials and regulators are investigating Ally Financial Inc, Capital One Financial Corp, Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc, GM Financial and other lenders over car loans they made to less creditworthy borrowers.

(Reporting by Peter Rudegeair; Editing by Chris Reese)