The 2025 Survey of Equipment Finance Activity (SEFA) reveals modest growth and evolving credit conditions across the $1.3 trillion equipment finance industry in 2024. Based on a survey of nearly 100 ELFA member companies, the SEFA is now free to all ELFA members. Following are key takeaways from this indispensable annual resource.

Steady Growth Across Organization Types, Market Segments

The industry demonstrated resilience in 2024, with new business volume (NBV) growing 3.1% to $146.9 billion—a significant improvement from 2023's 1.1% growth. This aligned with the U.S. economy's 2.9% inflation rate.

Growth was not evenly distributed across organization types. Banks, holding 55% market share, saw NBV decline 1.3% year-over-year—an improvement from their 3.3% decrease in 2023. Meanwhile, captives and independents outperformed with growth rates of 5.9% and 17.7%, respectively.

Market segment performance varied significantly: small-ticket transactions led at 6.2% growth, middle-ticket grew 2.5%, and large-ticket showed modest 1.4% growth.

Credit Quality Concerns Emerge

While portfolios remain healthy with 98.7% reporting as current, warning signs are appearing. Gross losses increased to 60 basis points in 2024, the highest since 2018. Net charge-offs rose to 47 basis points, up from 30 basis points in 2023. 

Credit approval rates declined to 61.8% in dollar terms, down from 67.5% in 2023, signaling prioritization of credit worthiness over volume growth.

Profitability Under Pressure

Despite a 13% rise in lease and loan revenue, there was a 14.5% drop in pre-tax income driven by a 33% increase in interest expense, a nearly 50% increase in bad debt provisions, and 12.7% higher total expenses.

Return on Average Assets (ROA) declined to 1.1% (from 1.7% in 2023), while Return on Average Equity (ROE) fell to 7.9% (from 11.1% the prior year).

Sector Spotlight and Innovation Trends

From an equipment perspective, the top financed categories were transportation, agricultural, construction, IT & related technology services, and materials handling. By end-user industries, agriculture led at 19.5% of total volume, followed by construction (10.6%) and wholesale/retail (9.0%).

The equipment finance industry is embracing technology, with 90% implementing auto pay solutions and 74% adopting non-paper billing. Artificial intelligence investments are gaining traction in documentation (71% of respondents) and underwriting (65%).

Strategic Insights for Industry Leaders

The 2025 SEFA provides over 2,000 data points across 400+ pages, offering unprecedented industry visibility. Complementing the main report, ELFA released the 2025 Small-Ticket SEFA, showing 1.9% growth in small-ticket NBV, providing targeted insights for transactions under $250,000.