New business volume grew 6.9 percent in the equipment finance industry in 2017, according to the 2018 Survey of Equipment Finance Activity (SEFA) released by the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA).

The rise in new business volume marked the eighth consecutive year businesses increased their spending on capital equipment. The SEFA report covers key statistical, financial and operations information for the $1 trillion equipment finance industry, based on a comprehensive survey of 114 ELFA member companies.

ELFA also released a companion report to the 2018 SEFA called the 2018 Small-Ticket Survey of Equipment Finance Activity. The report, which focuses on small-ticket and micro-ticket equipment transactions among the SEFA respondents, found that new business volume in the small-ticket space grew by 3.6 percent in 2017.

“The equipment finance industry continues to grow and prosper, as evidenced by this latest edition of ELFA’s Survey of Equipment Finance Activity,” ELFA President and CEO Ralph Petta said. “The association Board and staff are grateful to ELFA member respondents, without whom this leading industry data source would not be possible.”

Survey highlights

Key findings for 2017 as reported in the 2018 SEFA include:

• New business volume grew 6.9 percent in 2017, surpassing real GDP, which grew 2.3 percent. By organization type, captives and independents saw a 10 percent increase in new business volume, while banks saw a 5 percent increase. By market segment, new business volume grew 9.7 percent in the middle ticket segment, 4.3 percent in small ticket and 2.8 percent in large ticket.
• From an asset perspective, the top-five most-financed equipment types were IT and related technology services, transportation, construction, agricultural and office machines. The top five end-user industries representing the largest share of new business volume were services, agriculture, wholesale/retail, industrial and manufacturing and transportation.
• Delinquencies increased slightly, with 2 percent of receivables over 31 days past due compared to 1.8 percent the previous year. While delinquencies are still very low, they have been on the rise since 2013 when only 1.2 percent of receivables were over 31 days past due.
• Charge-offs also increased slightly but remained at 0.33 percent of average receivables; any level lower than 1 percent is considered very low.
• Credit approvals decreased slightly while the percentage of approved applications being booked and funded increased.
• Employment levels grew moderately by 3.4 percent.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP administered the 2018 SEFA. The results were compiled from surveys sent to 375 eligible ELFA member companies in the first quarter of 2018. A total of 114 companies submitted 2017 U.S. domestic lease and loan data.

Web Seminar: ELFA will hold a web seminar in August to report the survey results. The seminar will also debut the updated SEFA Interactive Dashboard, which highlights key findings from the executive summary of the SEFA over the past decade. Details will be available soon at www.elfaonline.org/SEFA.