New business volume grew 6.9% in the equipment finance industry in 2017, according to the 2018 Survey of Equipment Finance Activity (SEFA) from the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association. The rise in new business volume marked the eighth consecutive year that businesses increased their spending on capital equipment.

ELFA also released a companion report to the 2018 SEFA called the 2018 Small-Ticket Survey of Equipment Finance Activity. The report, which focuses on small-ticket and micro-ticket equipment transactions among the SEFA respondents, found that new business volume in the small-ticket space grew by 3.6% in 2017.

ELFA President and CEO Ralph Petta said, “The equipment finance industry continues to grow and prosper, as evidenced by this latest edition of ELFA’s Survey of Equipment Finance Activity. The association Board and staff are grateful to ELFA member respondents, without whom this leading industry data source would not be possible.”

Key findings for 2017 as reported in the 2018 SEFA include:

• New business volume grew 6.9% in 2017, surpassing real GDP, which grew 2.3%. By organization type, captives and independents saw a 10% increase in new business volume, while banks saw a 5% increase. By market segment, new business volume grew 9.7% in the middle ticket segment, 4.3% in small ticket and 2.8% in large ticket.
• From an asset perspective, the top-five most-financed equipment types were IT and related technology services, transportation, construction, agricultural and office machines. The top five end-user industries representing the largest share of new business volume were services, agriculture, wholesale/retail, industrial and manufacturing and transportation.
• Delinquencies increased slightly, with 2.0% of receivables over 31 days past due compared to 1.8% the previous year. While delinquencies are still very low, they have been on the rise since 2013 when only 1.2% of receivables were over 31 days past due.
• Charge-offs also increased slightly but remained at 0.33% of average receivables; any level lower than 1% is considered very low.
• Credit approvals decreased slightly while the percentage of approved applications being booked and funded increased.
• Employment levels grew moderately by 3.4%.

PricewaterhouseCoopers administered the 2018 SEFA. The results were compiled from surveys sent to 375 eligible ELFA member companies in Q1/18. A total of 114 companies submitted 2017 U.S. domestic lease and loan data.