Data Discoveries: Q&A with the ELFA Research Committee Chair

ELFA has released the 2024 Survey of Equipment Finance Activity (SEFA), the go-to source for stats on the $1 trillion equipment finance industry. We sat down with Jessica O'Brien, Chair of the ELFA Research Committee and Vice President at Citizens Asset Finance, to uncover key insights and expert tips on making the most of this invaluable data.

Q. Did anything surprise you about the 2024 SEFA findings?

A. At first glance, I was a little surprised by the increase in new business volume from a year-over-year perspective. Coming from a banking background, I was more focused on what I would expect to see from banks vs. the overall market. But after digging into the data on the banks vs. captives vs. independents, the trends are right where I would expect them to be. This is why it’s so important to not only look at the overall industry data, but to also really understand what is driving those numbers.

Q. What's new with the SEFA this year?

A. Each year we try to refresh survey questions to make sure we are evolving with the industry and bringing relevant data to our members. Recently, we expanded the Clean Energy Investment Tax Credit (ITC) program data to really drill down into the types of programs being financed. We also continue to expand on automatic decisioning trends as we move toward an AI future. One of my favorite new questions is related to tactics used to manage the continual cost of funds increases (rate lock, syndications, updating rate cards more frequently, etc.). It’s helpful to view this data and see what strategies various companies are using.

Q. How is the Research Committee leveraging technology with the SEFA?

A. We offer the SEFA in a variety of formats to make sure it's easy for everyone to access and use. For example, the Interactive SEFA Dashboard tool on the ELFA website shows a 10-year historical trend on all data sets relating to various businesses. Whether you are looking for sales / new business volume, financial statement info, credit & collections or asset management data, the SEFA really has it all.

We are excited about a potential new platform launching next year for the SEFA’s 50^th anniversary. MS Power BI is being considered for our interactive dashboard, which is more intuitive and user-friendly than other platforms and has faster processing to handle large amounts of data.  This is definitely something to look forward to.

Q. The SEFA report has more than 2,000 data points. Where would you advise a new user to start using the data?

A. First and foremost, I hope you have someone on your team who loves data as much as I do. I would have your analyst review and summarize the data for your full team.

For a high-level view, I would recommend looking at the executive summary for overall industry trends and any substantial changes we saw YOY.

If you are looking more specifically for competitor data, I would jump directly to the banks, captives or independents section of the SEFA, depending on where you fall, and start your deep dive there. You can then drill down even further by market and organization size. This will give you a true set of data to compare your company to.

Q. There is a lot of information packed into this report. What type of feedback do you hear in terms of how people are using the data?

A. As mentioned before, there are more than 2,000 data points so there are myriad ways to use this. That said, most of the feedback I hear is that folks are using this report strategically within their own businesses—in some cases, to level set what they are currently doing versus the broader market, and in other cases, to identify trends their industry peers are moving toward that they haven’t considered. Others have used the data to help explain their business and industry to senior management during business reviews. There is no better place to obtain this type of industry information than the SEFA.