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.... read more
September 2010
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...... read more
September 2010
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.... read more
September 2010
In this edition of Tipping the Scales, Lesley Anne Hawes returns to discuss the implications of the so-called “hanging paragraph” in BAPCA as ruled upon by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in AmeriCredit Financial Services v. Thompkins. The ruling, Hawes contends, will make it more difficult for debtors going forward … and gives creditors a reason to cheer.... read more
July/August 2010
With an exposure draft expected this summer, lease accounting changes brought about by FASB and IASB convergence that once seemed distant are now becoming more and more real. It is therefore prudent for leasing companies to prepare for the expected impact to their policies, processes and software systems. At a minimum, lease management systems must be reviewed, modified and tested for compliance.... read more
July/August 2010
For many outside our industry, equipment leasing and finance is a niche with magical and confusing terminology and structures such as synthetic leases, operating leases, true leases, FMVs, TRACs, ALIASs and EFAs. When you add software leasing and finance into the mix, you encounter a niche within a niche. In the following article, Ken Weinberg briefly addresses some of the unique considerations raised by such software transactions. ... read more
July/August 2010
Earlier this year, Huntington Bank made headlines in the financial press by delivering impressive 2010 first-quarter earnings after facing what some have called a “near death experience” in 2009. The Monitor took notice when industry veteran Rick Remiker was named president of Huntington Equipment Finance Group, charged with the task of taking the group to the next level.... read more
July/August 2010
Commercial debt buyers have fared well as companies have looked for ways to create much-needed liquidity and they have proven they are more than capable of filling a liquidity void. But will the trend hold once the economy recovers and the capital markets operate efficiently once more?... read more
July/August 2010
Today’s marketplace continues to expand and evolve. As it does, your customers, employees and partners demand more. Providing employees with information, devices and gadgets they need to function effectively and training them to stand out in front of technology and build real relationships can go a long way.... read more
July/August 2010
Across a variety of industries where legacy platforms are prevalent and challenging to replace (including banking and insurance), companies are considering Business Process Management (BPM) solutions as an alternative to system replacement. As equipment finance companies look to the future and consider alternatives to modernizing their legacy technologies, they may want to consider these in the mix.... read more
July/August 2010
Changes to the lessor accounting rules are imminent, although their full extent is not yet known. What is certain, however, indicates that lessors will have to adjust their operations, processes and reporting to one degree or another. Shawn Halladay asks: “Will you be ready?”... read more
June 2010
This edition of Dispatches From the Trenches analyses some of the statutory framework of the Uniform Commercial Code, which provides some comfort to funders willing to go blind … that is, don’t receive executed notices and Acknowledgments.... read more
June 2010
Andrew Alper returns to discuss a recent case in which the Minnesota court drew from Article 9 commercial reasonable standards to justify its ruling in an Article 2A lease transaction when such requirements do not exist in Article 2A … not good news for lessors that don’t comply with Article 9 disposition agreements.... read more
June 2010