Equipment leasing and finance industry confidence levels near all-time high in February

The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation has released the February 2017 Monthly Confidence Index for the Equipment Finance Industry (MCI-EFI). Overall, confidence in the equipment finance market is 72.2, leveling off after January’s all-time high index of 73.4.

When asked about the outlook for the future, MCI-EFI survey respondent Thomas Partridge, president, Fifth Third Equipment Finance, said, “With the commitment of the Trump administration to reduce regulation, we expect more companies to start thinking more about expansion and the growth of their business versus a focus on regulatory compliance. Longer-term concerns are over the direction of tax policies and their impact on the equipment finance industry. Any movement toward expensing capital expenditures could impact our industry. We think this is more of a 2018 issue than a 2017 issue.”

Designed to collect leadership data, the index reports a qualitative assessment of both the prevailing business conditions and expectations for the future as reported by key executives from the $1 trillion equipment finance sector.

Survey results are posted on the foundation website at www.leasefoundation.org/research/mci/.