Confidence in the Equipment Finance Industry Remains Steady in December

100% of survey respondents believe business conditions will improve or remain the same over the next four months

The December Monthly Confidence Index decrease slightly from 64.2 in November to 63.4 in December, indicating that confidence in the industry remains steady.
The December Monthly Confidence Index decrease slightly from 64.2 in November to 63.4 in December, indicating that confidence in the industry remains steady.
Equipment Leasing Foundation L 10950309

The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation (the Foundation) released the December 2014 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI), which showed confidence in the equipment finance market is 63.4, steady with the November index of 64.2.

When asked about the outlook for the future, MCI-EFI survey respondent David Schaefer, CEO, Mintaka Financial, LLC, said, “We are very pleased with our year-over-year growth in application volume, originations, approval rates and access to capital. We think next year will be positive again but expect to see slight increases in delinquency and credit losses.  We have seen extraordinary portfolio performance the past three years, but we're planning for a more normal period in 2015.”

When asked to assess their business conditions over the next four months:

  • 28% believe business conditions will improve, up slightly from 27.3% in November
  • 72% believe business conditions will remain the same, up from 69.7% in November
  • None believe business conditions will worsen, down from 3% the previous month
  • 22% believe demand for leases and loans to fund capital expenditures (capex) will increase, down from 30.3% in November
  • 72% believe demand will “remain the same”, up from 66.7% the previous month
  • 6.3% believe demand will decline, up from 3% in November
  • 22% expect more access to capital to fund equipment acquisitions, up slightly from 21.2% in November
  • 78% expect the “same” access to capital to fund business, down slightly from 78.8% in November
  • None expect “less” access to capital, unchanged from the previous month
  • 43.8% expect to hire more employees, a decrease from 45.4% in November
  • 50% expect no change in headcount, up from 48.5% last month
  • 6.3% expect fewer employees, essentially unchanged from November

Three percent of the leadership evaluate the current U.S. economy as “excellent,” unchanged from last month.  Ninety-seven percent evaluate the current U.S. economy as “fair,” and none rate it as “poor,” both also unchanged from November.

When asked to assess conditions over the next six months:

  • 47% believe that U.S. economic conditions will get “better”, an increase from 42.4% who believed so in November
  • 53% believe the U.S. economy will “stay the same”, down from 54.6% in November
  • None believe economic conditions in the U.S. will worsen, down from 3% last month
  • 37.5% believe their company will increase spending on business development activities, a decrease from 42.4% in November
  • 62.5% believe there will be “no change” in business development spending, an increase from 54.6% last month
  • None believe there will be a decrease in spending, down from 3% last month
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