Conference Issue 2010
September
While Business Investment Remains Lackluster, Leasing Industry Leaders Say It’s ‘Full Steam Ahead’
By Christopher Moraff
The summer of 2010 ended with a thud as August indicators ranging from housing sales to employment confirmed the economic recovery is still on tenuous ground. With economists split on whether we’re in store for a “double-dip” recession, we decided to ask a group of leasing executives how they saw the past year, and what they think is in store for 2011. What came across is that the industry continues to see the glass half full.
Discipline in Pricing is Critical to Profitability in the Leasing Industry
By Shawn Halladay
There has been a steady decline in profitability measures for the leasing industry over the past several years. Without a doubt, the recession has played a role in this decline, but the recession was an event external to the industry. At a time when there are questions being asked as to the viability of leasing as an industry, and not just as a product, are there other factors and/or drivers at work? Shawn Halladay considers these and other points.
Equipment Leasing & Finance Association
With Advocacy and Offerings, the ELFA Is Dedicated to Both Protect and Serve
By Stuart P. Papavassiliou
Once again with the fall conferences on the horizon, the Monitor continues its tradition of interviewing the president of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association to catch up on the issues and concerns that affect the industry at large. After a year of transition, we spoke with William G. Sutton as he takes the helm once again … this time at the industry’s largest association.
Obama Expands, Extends Bonus Depreciation on Equipment Purchases
By Christopher Moraff
At the beginning of September, President Barack Obama unveiled an initiative expanding to 100% the amount that businesses may immediately write off on capital investments. Business leaders applauded the move to broaden bonus depreciation; but some economists said while his heart is in the right place, the President’s proposal may not have the impact he anticipates.
How Do You Choose to View the Glass, Half Full or Half Empty?
A Business Perspective
By Dexter Van Dango
Oscar Wilde once wrote,
"Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!"
The Monitor’s humorist, Dexter van Dango, grapples with these opposing forces in the following article. Luckily, and for those who know Dexter, predictably, the forces of optimism prevail.
Technology and the Equipment Finance Industry
Turning Portfolio Data Into Information You Can Use
By Joseph Moore
It is news to no one that the equipment finance industry is under a lot of pressure to change the way its practitioners have always done business. A latest perfect storm of increased regulatory oversight, economic tough times and accounting changes are making life interesting, to say the least. The good news is that the technology needed to address these changes is becoming available at just the right time.
Verifying Debtor Names on UCC Financing Statements Can Mean the Difference Between Collecting a Debt or Going Home Empty-Handed
By Richard Fifield
The current economic situation, and the resulting increase in charge-offs and delinquency rates, now has many lenders scrambling to re-examine their policies and practices regarding protection of the collateral securing such loans. Ensuring the correct debtor name is sourced and filed on a UCC Financing Statement is the beginning part of that process.
Machinery & Equipment Values
Setting the Standard for Industrial Auctions — Déjà Vu All Over Again
By Michael A. Petruski
Many of the major valuation and appraisal firms in the U.S. have their origins in the auction business of industrial assets and/or retail going-out-of-business liquidations. The advent of the Internet, advances in fiber optics and telecommunications, computer technology and a growing global economy have fueled innovation in the way industrial assets are marketed and sold today.
IBM Global Financing
New Leader Seeks Ways to ‘Enable’ Success
By Stephen J. McCabe
As IBM Corporation prepares to celebrate its first century next year, a veteran leader who has just taken the helm of the company’s financing arm, managing $35 billion in assets, shares his plans to keep IBM Global Financing (IGF) the “enabler” of success — for both its clients and its parent.
A Practical Discussion of Credit Bureaus and Their Scores
For a Change of Pace
By Linda P. Kester
For this year’s Fall Conference Issue, Linda Kester offers Monitor readers a change of pace. Kester takes a look at the credit bureaus and their scores, and since understanding credit is essential to success, it’s a topic that should be near and dear to every broker’s heart.
U.S. Supreme Court Reverses Third Circuit on Duty of Trustee to Object to Claims of Exemption in Bankruptcy Case
By Lesley Anne Hawes
Claims of exemption can be critical to a debtor that seeks a fresh start through bankruptcy. In addition, they allow a debtor to retain certain categories of property up to a specified dollar value, including equipment and other tools of the trade, vehicles, clothing and household goods. Such assets can provide essential assets for the debtor to start or continue to work and recover financially after bankruptcy.
TOUSA, Inc.: Upstream Guaranties, Fraudulent Transfers & ‘Cute’ Savings Clauses
By Kenneth P. Weinberg
Special required notices to guarantors and other byzantine defenses help to explain why so many guaranties are practically unreadable and why many are loathe to make changes to these documents. Take the much-examined case In Re TOUSA, Inc...
