ELFA - Equipment Leasing and Finance Association - Equipping Business for Success

Monthly Leasing and Finance Index May 2013

May 1, 2013, 14:38 PM

Participants in the ELFA MLFI-25:

  • ADP Credit
  • BancorpSouth Equipment Finance
  • Bank of America
  • Bank of the West
  • BB&T Bank
  • BMO Harris Equipment Finance
  • Canon Financial Services
  • Caterpillar Financial Services
  • CIT
  • De Lage Landen Financial Services
  • Dell Financial Services
  • Direct Capital Corporation
  • EverBank Commercial Finance
  • Fifth Third Equipment Finance
  • First American Equipment Finance, a City National Bank Company
  • GreatAmerica Financial Services
  • Hitachi Credit America
  • HP Financial Services
  • Huntington Equipment Finance
  • John Deere Financial
  • Key Equipment Finance
  • M&T Bank
  • Marlin Leasing
  • Merchants Capital
  • PNC Equipment Finance
  • RBS Asset Finance
  • SG Equipment Finance
  • Siemens Financial Services
  • Stearns Bank
  • Suntrust
  • Susquehanna Commercial Finance
  • US Bancorp Equipment Finance
  • Verizon Capital
  • Volvo Financial Services
  • Wells Fargo Equipment Finance

The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association's (ELFA) (MLFI-25), which reports economic activity from 25 companies representing a cross section of the $725 billion equipment finance sector, showed their overall new business volume for May was $7.5 billion, up 21 percent compared to volume in May 2012. Month-over-month, new business volume was unchanged from April. Year to date, cumulative new business volume was up 11 percent compared to 2012.

Receivables over 30 days were at 1.6 percent in May, matching an historic low, and down from the previous three months at 2.0 percent. Delinquencies declined from 2.7 percent in the same period in 2012. Charge-offs were unchanged for the past three months at the all-time low of 0.3 percent.

Credit approvals totaled 78.8 percent in May, up from 77.2 percent in April. Sixty-three percent of participating organizations reported submitting more transactions for approval during May, down from 72 percent the previous month.

Finally, total headcount for equipment finance companies was up one percent from the previous month, and up one percent year over year.

Separately, the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation's Monthly Confidence Index (MCI-EFI) for June is 57.3, an increase from the May index of 56.7.

ELFA President and CEO William G. Sutton, CAE, said: "May MLFI-25 data suggest an equipment finance sector on the verge of a breakout performance. While recent key indicators show an overall improvement in lending to the small business sector, the May numbers provide concrete evidence of growing demand for productive assets by a cross section of the business community. At the same time, historic lows in delinquencies and charge-offs mean American businesses are better able to meet their financial obligations, creating a favorable environment for additional capital investment and job creation. We hope that these trends will continue into the summer."

Robert Rinaldi, Senior Vice President, CSI Leasing, Inc., said, "The fact that all of the metrics are going in the right direction is really encouraging. Many lessors have seen these ups in new business volume (NBV) followed by subsequent down months, evidenced in the 'saw-tooth' pattern of the NBV chart. But, and this is a good news 'but,' if you run a six-month rolling average on the NBV data over the past six years to smooth out the 'saw-tooth,' a clearer picture of definitive growth appears."

 

MLFI-25 New Business Volume
(Year Over Year Comparison)
0513-NewBusVol

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Aging of Receivables Over 30 Days:

AgingofRcv.png

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Average Losses (Charge-offs) as a % of net receivables
(Year Over Year Comparison)
Average Losses

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Credit Approval Ratios As % of all Decisions Submitted
(Year Over Year Comparison)
Credit Approval Ratios

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Total Number of Employees
(Year Over Year Comparison)
Total Number of Employees

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