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.... read more

September 2010

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.... read more

September 2010

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.

September 2010

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.... read more

September 2010

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

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September 2010

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July/August 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