January-February 2012

From: Weighing Equipment Options

Keeping an Eye on the Market for Financing

The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) and its affiliated nonprofit, the Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation (ELFF), each publishes its own monthly report. ELFF publishes the Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry. This gauges the gut reaction of executives in the industry to what’s going on not only in their companies but generally in the economy.

ELFA publishes a report called the Monthly Leasing and Finance Index, which is a look back at the previous month’s activity evaluating more real-time statistics. The reports complement each other but do have different points of contact and sets of data.

“The MCI reports a qualitative assessment of both the prevailing business conditions and expectations for the future as reported by key executives,” says Kelli Jones Nienaber, ELFF executive director. “It has a future-focused, four-month lead time.” Survey questions and monthly results are posted on the foundation website, www.leasefoundation.org.

“The MLFI-25 measures monthly commercial equipment lease and loan activity as reported by 25 ELFA member companies representing a cross-section of the equipment finance sector,” says Amy Vogt, an ELFA spokesperson. “Based on hard survey data, the responses mirror the economic activity of the broader equipment finance sector and current business conditions nationally.”

“Our association provides a variety of resources for end users to learn about how they can incorporate equipment financing into their business strategies,” adds Vogt. “We have an informational website, www.EquipmentFinance101.org, with a wide range of resources, including a review of the various types of financing, a glossary of terms, a lease versus loan comparison, and questions to ask when financing equipment.” Survey results are posted on the Foundation website, www.leasefoundation.org/IndRsrcs/MCI/.