The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index (MLFI-25), which reports economic activity for the $628 billion equipment finance sector, showed overall new business volume for November was $6.2 billion, up 38% from volume of $4.5 billion in the same period in 2010. Volume was up 3% from the previous month. Year-to-date cumulative new business volume is up 26%.

Credit quality metrics continued to improve.  Receivables over 30 days were the lowest in over two years, decreasing to 2.0% in November from 2.2% in October. Charge-offs were unchanged from the previous month at 0.7%.

Credit standards remained steady as the number of lease applications approved decreased nominally to 76.2% from 76.3% the previous month.  65.5% of participating organizations reported submitting more transactions for approval during the month, up from 59% the previous month.

Finally, total headcount for equipment finance companies in November was down 0.2%month to month and down 1.2% year over year. Supplemental data show that the construction and trucking industries led the underperforming sectors.
 
Separately, the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation's Monthly Confidence Index (MCI-EFI) for December is 57.2, down slightly from the November index of 57.4, indicating steadying optimism about business activity despite ongoing concerns about the global economic situation.  For more detailed information on the MCI-EFI visit www.LeaseFoundation.org
 
ELFA President and CEO William G. Sutton, CAE, said: “Virtually all metrics in this month’s MLFI point to an industry poised for a breakout performance. While the replacement cycle appears to account for the sharp increase in new business volume, anecdotal and other evidence provided by ELFA members in diverse markets indicates that growth and credit quality continue to gain steam. As we move into 2012, our hope is that the economy will continue its strong recovery.”

Irv Rothman, President & CEO, HP Financial Services, located in Berkeley Heights, NJ, said, “The industry continues to experience tremendous growth as enterprise and government entities increasingly opt to leverage available leasing and financing offers to reduce capital expenditures and conserve cash.  With business demands and transformative technologies like cloud computing impacting today’s technology decisions, we continue to see demand from our customers for the flexible options leasing, financing and lifecycle asset management provides IT.”