Is it Time for FASB to Re-Expose the Proposed Leases Standard?

Bill Bosco

The FASB and the IASB have been at their Lease Accounting project since July 19, 2006. They have lease project fatigue and want to get this project done quickly – possibly too quickly to really get good feedback from the... read more

March 2015

GASB Lease Accounting Change Project at Odds with FASB Approach

Bill Bosco

On November 11, 2014, the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB) issued a Preliminary Views document on a project to change current GASB lease accounting GAAP, but it is in line with the IASB approach rather than the FASB approach that... read more

March 2015

Transportation Finance Sector Still Ripe with Opportunity

Advantage Funding

Editor’s Note: This is based in part on a panel discussion led by executives from Advantage Funding, TCF Equipment Finance and Residco on trends in transportation finance at the annual ELFA Conference in October. The following entry summarizes and analyzes... read more

Feb 2015

Contradiction in Class 8 Fleet Fuel Economy, Age

Brian Holland

Fleet Advantage conducted an online survey designed to take the pulse of Class 8 truck fleet managers on topics ranging from fuel economy trends to equipment acquisition and disposition, driver retention, maintenance and repair practices, and more. The survey revealed... read more

Feb 2015

IASB: Blind to the European Banks Capital Crisis

Bill Bosco

On January 9, 2015 Santander bank raised $8.88 billion by issuing stock and cut its dividend by 66% to address regulatory capital issues. The bank’s shares have fallen 29%, resulting in a loss of $33 billion in market value. Santander... read more

Feb 2015

The Heart of Your Corporate Strategic Plan – Lease Pricing. Make it Count.

Scott Thacker

Every company has a strategic plan, right ? Many are three-year plans, some are five-year plans and some are informal, but in some form they exist for every company . The typical elements of a strategic plan are many and... read more

Feb 2015

Fleet Replacement Strategy Execution

Patrick Gaskins

When a disproportionate number of new units enter a fleet over a very short period of time, it can throw off the balance of older models and new in terms of average fleet age. This can lead to inconsistent and... read more

Feb 2015

Fraud and Greed in Equipment Finance

Dexter Van Dango

Nearly 2,500 years ago Greek poet Sophocles quipped that he would “rather fail with honor than succeed by fraud.” It seems that some people disagree with Sophocles — they fail without honor while trying to cheat the system. To the... read more

Jan 2015

Usury Savings Clauses May Not Save Your Loan Documents

Kenneth P. Weinberg, Jennifer L. Howard

Lessors and lenders engaged in equipment leasing and finance should remember that a usury savings clause is not a “get out of jail free card.” Historically, equipment lessors have been less concerned with usury issues than their straight-loan brethren. The... read more

Jan 2015

Our Chronic Unemployment Problem

Bill Bosco

Although the official unemployment rate is 5.6%, it is a misleading number. The labor participation rate (the percentage of working aged people who are working or looking for work) is at 62.8%, meaning over 92 million working-aged people are not... read more

Jan 2015

Making the Case for Global Financing

K. Bill Dost

In making the case for global equipment leasing during a session at the recent ELFA convention, consultants from The Alta Group, and executives from Societe Generale Equipment Finance and Genpact made the business case for expanding equipment leasing beyond American... read more

Dec 2014

Calculate Your Optimum Fleet Lifecycle – And Stick to It

Scott Mishoe

In the not-too-distant past, it was common practice for grocery chains to use available capital to build new stores or remodel old ones, with the thinking that the best use of the money was where the expenditure directly touched the... read more

Dec 2014

The Future of Leasing

Bill Stephenson

Editor’s note: Bill Stephenson, chairman and CEO of DLL, released the following article, published in its entirety. The business we are in is about helping our customers thrive in tough, competitive marketplaces. This means having to understand their immediate business... read more

Nov 2014

Lease Accounting Project Moves Forward

Bill Bosco

Much work remains on the lease accounting project, and I do not anticipate a final standard until early 2015. The proposal, which has been through two exposure periods, was highly criticized by a variety of constituents in the latest public... read more

Nov 2014

Monitor Bank 50 Discovers Shifting Focus to Major IT Spending

Steve Byrnes, Melisa Carter

IT spending is surging in our industry, but with lowered expectations regarding transforming organization cost structures. Business executives now believe that broader business strategies must be key components of major initiative business cases. They have also discovered that the cost... read more

Nov 2014