Despite the global financial crisis in which assets fell by $50 trillion since last year and the industry was facing its 15th month in recession, at the March 19 ELFA/IMN Investor Conference in New York, attendees expressed some hope and optimism.... read more

May/June 2009

The Marlin Leasing story details how an independent leasing company was squeezed by the ravages of a worsening economy and the evaporation of the capital markets. And after achieving bank holding company status, Marlin now finds itself heavily dependent on bank regulators and the TALF program for its future funding and, in fact, its very survival.... read more

May/June 2009

It’s a frustrating market to say the least: small- and medium-sized businesses have never been in such dire need of financing, yet the lenders that serve that purpose don’t have the funding to provide it. Competitors have exited the market and will continue to do so. What’s left is a market with substantial opportunity to fund equipment purchases by borrowers with pristine credit — if only there was liquidity for equipment finance companies.... read more

May/June 2009

Many in the industry find themselves rejecting more applicants than they have in a long time. This edition provides an outline of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the requirements it imposes on finance companies in such situations.... read more

March/April 2009

The en banc decision in Trusted Media highlights the significant practical and legal implications of a ruling that makes a determination that the requirements of §303(b) are properly met — a prerequisite to subject matter jurisdiction, as the Fifth and Second Circuits hold. Creditors filing an involuntary petition for relief against a debtor must “get it right” or risk substantial uncertainty as to the validity of orders and activities in the case.... read more

March/April 2009

As convention season rolls around this year, it’s important to remember some key aspects to getting the most out of the annual leasing conventions and that means networking, networking, networking. Linda Kester offers some helpful tips to finding and securing new prospects.... read more

March/April 2009

Straightforward, industrious and self-assured are just a few of the first impressions one gets when speaking with Tom Depping, chairman and CEO of Main Street National Bank of Kingwood, TX. ... read more

March/April 2009

Last year, those interviewed for the Monitor’s annual broker roundtable were optimistic even during an economic downturn that hit the industry hard in late 2007 following the collapse of the subprime markets. But what most didn’t realize, at the time, was that more hardship was ahead, and 2008 would be even more surprising and worse for the economy than anyone feared.... read more

March/April 2009

The National Equipment Finance Association (NEFA) launches into its first year as the newly combined entity of the UAEL and the EAEL. In this year’s message, Brent Hall, CEO of Pinnacle Finance and the group’s first president, provides an overview of his experience in the association, its mission and its value to the equipment leasing and finance professional.... read more

March/April 2009

With the U.S. economy suffering through its worst recession in more than half a century and access to credit drying up, funding sources have suddenly become the people in the room everyone wants to talk to. For our annual Funding Source Issue, we asked five leasing industry lenders to weigh in on the challenges and responsibilities of funding in a down market.... read more

March/April 2009

The day-in, day-out reality of bankruptcy practice for practitioners is often likened to the emergency room of a busy urban hospital. Sometimes the patient is wheeled in, barely clinging to life. The wounds must be cleansed, the bleeding stopped, sometimes with an incomplete knowledge of the patient’s full history and circumstance, and with foreknowledge that resuscitation may not be in the cards. All of this is done while striving to earn a living, and to uphold the ethics of the profession.... read more

January/February 2009

The results of the 11th annual survey of mid-size and large U.S. manufacturing company CFOs commissioned by Bank of America Business Capital are explored in this article. The survey was conducted during a period of deteriorating health of the U.S. economy (mid-August through mid-October 2008). As a result, responses trended downward during the timeframe the survey was conducted... read more

January/February 2009

Once again asset managers are finding themselves on the front lines as leasing and finance companies struggle to maintain market share in a stagnant economy. In 2007, with the first signs of credit market instability, some 70% of finance company senior managers polled by the ELFA said they expected equipment managers to become increasingly important to their businesses. The Monitor spoke with five equipment managers to gain their perspectives on these times of unprecedented uncertainty.... read more

January/February 2009

... read more

January/February 2009

It is common for those in our industry to distinguish true leases from dollar-out leases or other leases intended as security, which result in nothing more than a secured loan (referred to throughout the remainder of this issue as an ALIAS). This edition goes a step further and discusses situations where a loan documented on a note and a security agreement (sometimes referred to as a straight loan) is preferable to a lease, and vice versa.... read more

January/February 2009