The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation released the September 2018 Monthly Confidence Index for the equipment finance industry. Overall, confidence in the equipment finance market rose in September to 65.5, up from the August index of 60.7.

Survey respondent David Normandin, CLFP, managing director, Commercial Finance Group, Hanmi Bank, said, “The summer of 2018 has been brisk with activity and funded volume has been strong. Continued economic confidence and indicators lead me to believe that this will continue in the short term, thus I am optimistic about the remainder of 2018 and the start of 2019.”

Results and comments from the September survey include:

• 17.9% of executives responding said they believe business conditions will improve over the next four months, an increase from 13.3% in August. 82.1% of respondents believe business conditions will remain the same over the next four months. None believe business conditions will worsen.

• 35.7% of survey respondents believe demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures will increase over the next four months, an increase from 16.7% in August. 64.3% believe demand will “remain the same” during the same four-month time period, and none believe demand will decline.

• 10.7% of the respondents expect more access to capital to fund equipment acquisitions over the next four months, down from 16.7% in August. 89.3% of executives indicate they expect the “same” access to capital to fund business. None expect “less” access to capital.

• When asked, 50% of the executives report they expect to hire more employees over the next four months, an increase from 36.7% in August. 50% expect no change in headcount over the next four months, a decrease from 63.3% last month. None expect to hire fewer employees.

• 51.9% of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “excellent,” up from 40% last month. 48.2% of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “fair,” and none evaluate it as “poor.”

• 11.1% of the survey respondents believe that U.S. economic conditions will get “better” over the next six months, a decrease from 13.3% in August. 85.2% of survey respondents indicate they believe the U.S. economy will “stay the same” over the next six months, while only 3.7% believe economic conditions in the U.S. will worsen.

• In September, 40.7% of respondents indicate they believe their company will increase spending on business development activities during the next six months, an increase from 33.3% in August. 59.3% believe there will be “no change.” None believe there will be a decrease in spending.