Equipment Leasing and Finance Industry Confidence Rises in February 2019

By: Reprinted courtesy of Equipment Finance Advisor

If you didn’t see this is yesterday’s Equipment Finance Advisor we thought you may enjoy some good news before the President’s Day weekend.

This has echoed the bullish sentiment been hearing from our partner firms. We are pulling for the positive trend to continue!

The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation released the February 2019 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI). Overall, confidence in the equipment finance market increased in February to 56.7, an increase from the January index of 53.4.

Designed to collect leadership data, the index reports a qualitative assessment of both the prevailing business conditions and expectations for the future as reported by key executives from the $1 trillion equipment finance sector.

When asked about the outlook for the future, MCI-EFI survey respondent Frank Campagna, Business Line Manager, M&T Commercial Equipment Finance, said, “Our optimism in the economy requires putting a blind eye to the current political climate with the hope that sensible minds will prevail; we are seeing a demand in most industry sectors and geographic regions that we serve. Clients, especially in the transportation sector, are turning over equipment more frequently and are returning to using tax lease structures more than in the recent past. Clients are also more interested in discussing financing alternatives and engaging in the planning process with us early, which indicates a willingness and need to spend on capex.”

February 2019 Survey Results

The overall MCI-EFI is 56.7, an increase from 53.4 in January.
When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months, 10 percent of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, unchanged from January; 83.3 percent of respondents believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months, an increase from 70 percent the previous month; and 6.7 percent believe business conditions will worsen, down from 20 percent who believed so the previous month.

For the full article in the Equipment Finance Advisor, click here.