The world may have come to a grinding halt in 2020, but the top 40 vendor channel players kept on going. The group reported collective vendor channel new business volume of $39,958.8 million, which was down $1,322.9 million (3.2%) from $41,281.7 million in 2019. While the top three companies held their positions, the rest of the rankings were shaken up.

In 2020, the results were almost split down the middle, with 19 companies posting a collective year-over-year gain of $2,375.6 million in vendor channel activity and 21 companies reporting declines totaling $3,698.4 million, resulting in a net decrease of $1,322.9 million.

Top Five

DLL held on to the vendor channel crown with $12,174 million in originations, which was up 5.3% from $11,562 million reported in 2019. Wells Fargo easily retained the runner-up position with $6,552.8 million, which was down 14.6% from $7,673.5 million in 2019 vendor originations. Similarly, Banc of America Leasing held on to the No. 3 ranking with $3,259.3 million in vendor activity, which was down 10.9% from $3,660 million the prior year. PNC Equipment Finance climbed to the No. 4 position on the power of a 34.3% year-over-year gain, which resulted in total 2020 vendor originations of $2,992.5 million. U.S. Bank Equipment Finance retained its hold as a top five contender — although it slipped from No. 4 to No. 5 — with $2,460.1 million in vendor activity, which was down 4.1% from $2,564.1 million in 2019.

Top Dollar Gainers

The prize for the highest dollar gain in the vendor channel goes to PNC for its increase of $765 million. The runner-up in dollar gain was DLL with $612 million. Bank of the West’s gain of $173 million was enough to propel the bank to No. 6 in the ranking from its previous No. 10 position. Similarly, Hitachi Capital America rose to No. 12 from No. 17 thanks to its $144.6 million gain. New to the ranking this year, No. 32-ranked TD Equipment Finance, No. 30-ranked Baystone Government Finance/KS State Bank and No. 22-ranked Trans Lease reported gains of $87.8 million, $84.1 million and $83.5 million, respectively.

Highest Percentage Increases

Newcomer TD’s year-over-year percentage gain of 412.2% pushed the bank’s vendor channel volume to $109.1 million, up from $21.3 million in 2019. Similarly, Baystone’s 255.6% gain helped the bank join the ranking for the first time with $117 million in volume. First American Equipment Finance more than doubled its vendor volume — it’s 108.8% gain enabled the company to enter the ranking at No. 31. Crossroads Equipment Finance rose to No. 26 from its previous position of No. 28 on the power of its 72% gain. Trans Lease also entered the ranking at No. 22 thanks to a 72% gain. Arvest Equipment Finance jumped from No. 34 to No. 27 after reporting a 67.5% gain and Dext Capital joined the ranking at No. 37 with a 60% year-over-year increase.

Segment Composition

The 24 banks in this year’s ranking provided $23,849.7 million, or more than half (59.7%), of the total vendor channel volume. The four foreign affiliates supplied 34.1% of the total, or $13,612.5 million. Eleven independents contributed $2,196.9 million (5.5%) and one captive provided $299.7 million (0.8%).

New Arrivals 

Thirteen new companies joined the vendor ranking this year:

• Trans Lease, led by Randy Satrom, with $199.5 million

• Alliance Funding Group, led by Brij Patel, with $156 million

• Financial Partners Group, led by Jeff Lalima, with $140 million

• Byline Financial Group, led by Lyndon Thompson, with $126.9 million

• Baystone Government Finance/KS StateBank, led by Evan Howe, with $117 million

• First American Equipment Finance, led by Alan Sikora, with $116.7 million

• TD Equipment Finance, led by Anthony R. Sasso, with $109.01 million

• NewLane Finance, led by Daniel Dyer, with $96.4 million

• HomeTrust Bank, led by Jeff Kale, with $89.9 million

• Dext Capital, led by Kyin Lok, with $80 million

• Wallwork Financial, led by William Wallwork III, with $79.4 million

• Lease Corporation of America, led by John B. Kemp, with $78.7 million

• Partners Capital Group, led by Marcus Davin, with $78.4 million

Departures 

Ascentium Capital, which was acquired by Regions Bank, and BB&T Commercial Equipment Capital, which was acquired by TCF, left the ranking this year. Highland Capital and Eastern Funding also exited after shifting originations to the direct channel. Microfinancial/Timepayment, Amur Equipment Finance, Sterling National Bank, Webster Capital Finance and Oakmont Capital Services departed after opting out of this year’s survey. Stearns Bank, First Midwest and OnePlace Capital did not report enough vendor channel activity to be included in the top 40 this year.

Conclusions

Given the tumultuous year that 2020 was for everyone, the Monitor’s top 40 vendor channel players forged ahead during the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic, with half reporting gains and half reporting declines for a total decrease of 3.2%. Looking back to this time last year, these results surely outperformed many expectations.

We thank the companies that participated in this year’s vendor ranking, as this annual event would not be possible without their cooperation. We also remind our readers that this is the last issues before our annual Monitor 100 list, which will be coming up next month.

Basis for Rankings 

The rankings and data in this report were derived from equipment finance companies, which provided information on funded 2020 volume from vendor- and/or dealer-related relationships to qualify for inclusion in the vendor channel rankings. Many Monitor 100 participants originate new business volume from more than one source, but this aspect of our annual rankings is unique to the vendor channel.