The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation released the December 2014 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI). Overall, confidence in the equipment finance market is 63.4, steady with the November index of 64.2.

When asked about the outlook for the future, MCI-EFI survey respondent David Schaefer, CEO, Mintaka Financial, said, “We are very pleased with our year-over-year growth in application volume, originations, approval rates and access to capital. We think next year will be positive again but expect to see slight increases in delinquency and credit losses. We have seen extraordinary portfolio performance the past three years, but we’re planning for a more normal period in 2015.”

December 2014 Survey Results:

• When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months, 28% of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, up slightly from 27.3% in November.
• 22% of survey respondents believe demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures (capex) will increase over the next four months, down from 30.3% in November.
• 22% of executives expect more access to capital to fund equipment acquisitions over the next four months, up slightly from 21.2% in November.
• 43.8% of the executives reported they expect to hire more employees over the next four months, a decrease from 45.4% in November.

To view the full ELFF survey results, click here.