ELFA’s new, modernized Research Agenda is here, establishing a permanent strategic framework designed to provide actionable business intelligence for the $1.3 trillion equipment finance industry. The Research Agenda’s six pillars are driven entirely by member input, and marks a major structural shift, combining the strengths of two groups under a unified ELFA Research umbrella. Previously, ELFA focused on producing member surveys and benchmarking data, while the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation produced grant-funded economic resources and topical studies. By merging these efforts, the new agenda maintains its traditional academic rigor and expert involvement, while evolving to create highly actionable, member-benefit content delivered through multiple channels.
"At ELFA, our mission has always been to equip the industry with the insights and tools needed to stay ahead of the curve," said Daryl Muller, COO & Corporate Secretary at ELFA. " This new Research Agenda is a major leap forward and fundamentally shifts how we use member feedback to shape our content and ensures we can leverage data in entirely new, impactful ways."
Kelli Nienaber, ELFA Senior Vice President of Industry Advancement and Executive Director of the Foundation, shared more about these changes: “The interesting thing is we use the words ‘Research Agenda,’ but it's not necessarily the grant-funded study that you might be familiar with, it's content development. The six themed buckets and the topics underneath them will be leveraged for all types of content across the organization: webinars, magazine articles, keynote speakers at conferences, breakout session topics, and more.”
She added, “Another thing that came out of this process was an understanding that perhaps those long-form PDFs are still interesting to some, but more and more people want short-form: they want a podcast, they want a webinar, they want something that they can experience, then take their learnings and be on their way."
The Research Agenda started with a comprehensive member survey launched at the ELFA Annual Convention in October. ELFA partnered with Keybridge Research to analyze external industry factors along with the survey results. The joint ELFA/Foundation Research Committee synthesized the survey and scan, narrowing nine initial topic buckets down to six priorities. Finally, executives pressure-tested these topics at an onsite deep dive during ELFA’s Executive Roundtable conference.
"Earlier this year, we brought together the ELFA and Foundation Research Committees to leverage key thought leaders in our industry and our collective knowledge and experience to create this inaugural framework," said David Normandin, CLFP, Chair of ELFA's Research Committee and President and CEO of Wintrust Specialty Finance. "Moving forward, I am energized to lead this incredibly talented group as we identify the key topics, frame them accurately for our members, and enhance deliverable formats that will be critical to the ongoing success of equipment finance companies."
Introducing the Research Pillars
- Industry Modernization & AI: Moving past the hype, this pillar focuses on real-world technology use cases such as operationalizing AI in credit processing and helping members separate real threats from perceived red flags when implementing new tools. n addition to AI, this pillar includes fintechs, digital payments, and other technology advancements.
- Fraud Defense: As new technologies advance, fraud has become a critical threat, prompting members to demand more resources. Rather than treating fraud as an individual issue, ELFA is framing it as a shared industry threat requiring collaborative defense and an industry-wide willingness to learn. ELFA intends to create forums and evaluation tools for members to assess software, applications, and bad actors.
- Workforce Evolution: The industry faces an ongoing talent gap as veteran professionals retire. This pillar supports the Foundation’s expanded workforce initiatives like Campus to Career programs and scholarships, and leverages programs like the CLFP Student Designation program at the University of North Texas. The goal is to ensure emerging talent understands the lucrative, stable career options within our $1.3 trillion industry.
- Regulatory Environment: This pillar supports ELFA's public policy agenda, equipping the association with the research and insights needed to promote a regulatory environment that allows our industry to thrive. This agenda strengthens ELFA’s ability to navigate state and federal policy threats and opportunities — from countering state-level efforts to apply consumer protection laws to commercial equipment finance, to advancing policies that promote pro-growth tax reform, expand access to capital, and ensure a strong manufacturing economy.
- Capital Markets: The U.S. equipment finance industry has always attracted private credit, private equity, and foreign investment due to its decades of stability. This pillar explores the long-term impact of this capital movement on independent firms and bank captives.
- Economic Navigation: The Monthly Confidence Index (MCI), CapEx Finance Index (CFI), and Momentum Monitors will remain reliable member resources. The new quarterly Economic Outlook produced by ELFA Chief Economist Tim Mahedy will provide economic data for members in a variety of formats, including slide decks, podcasts, and webinars.
"I don't anticipate much to change in the basic structure of the MCI or the CFI because we want that decades-long time series data. We don't want to shift those," said Nienaber.
The association will also continue to produce its longstanding industry-focused, data-driven research studies. ELFA’s partnership with Keybridge Research will provide fresh environmental scans and produce a new industry Horizon Report with an updated estimate for sizing the equipment finance market later this year. The annual Survey of Equipment Finance Activity (SEFA), the premier source of statistical information on the equipment finance industry, will remain a flagship data report to benchmark performance metrics.
ELFA also has a new fractional staff resource, Chief Economist Tim Mahedy. The long-term vision is to build a “data lakehouse,” a centralized repository giving members direct, self-serve access to decades of ELFA performance data for strategic planning.
Meeting Members Where They Are
These six pillars will drive initiatives across the entire organization, not just the Research team. These themes will be integrated into:
- Advocacy: Supporting the issues we tackle on behalf of our members.
- Research: Defining the benchmarks and data we provide.
- Events: Shaping the session content we curate.
- Education: Informing the programming we produce.
The overarching theme for the Research Agenda is clear: proactive, accessible insights deeply aligned with members’ immediate operational needs. Look for these new resources very soon.
