The equipment finance industry didn’t have a banner year in 2014, but the business of financing spending on capital equipment did outpace U.S. economic growth.
According to the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s 2015 survey of equipment finance activity, overall new business volume grew 6.7% last year, led by 9% growth in the small-ticket segment, which includes items like computer and office equipment and medical machines.
The increase was the fifth year in a row of growth for equipment financiers. New business volume grew much more robustly in the years following the Great Recession, however, when businesses played capital spending catch-up. Equipment finance grew 9.3% in 2013, 16.4% in 2012, 16.5% in 2011, and 3.9% in 2010. The industry bottomed out in 2009, when business volume contracted 30.3%.
William G. Sutton, ELFA’s President and CEO, said: “The data show that the equipment finance industry is healthy and growing, continuing an upward trend since the end of the Great Recession. More recent data collected in 2015 indicate that positive momentum is continuing, with member companies reporting solid new business growth and portfolio performance. We remain cautiously optimistic that demand for capital equipment will continue to drive positive growth.”
Some other trends the survey uncovered:
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