US business equipment borrowings up 4% in February, ELFA says
22/03/2024 19:00
March 22 (Reuters) - U.S. companies borrowed 4% more to
finance equipment investments in February compared to a year
ago, industry body Equipment Leasing and Finance Association
(ELFA) said on Friday.
Companies signed up for new loans, leases and lines of
credit worth $7.9 billion in February, down 15% from a month
ago.
"Credit quality, while still elevated year over year, showed
improvement with delinquencies slowly returning to normal levels
and charge-offs moving in a positive direction,” ELFA CEO Leigh
Lytle said.
The Washington-based company, which reports economic
activity for over $1-trillion equipment finance sector, said
credit approvals for U.S. companies in February came in at 76%,
unchanged from the preceding month.
Its non-profit affiliate, the Equipment Leasing & Finance
Foundation, said its confidence index for March stood at 55.2,
up from 51.7 for February and was at its highest level since
April 2022. A reading above 50 indicates a positive business
outlook.
ELFA's leasing and finance index is based on a 25-member
survey, including Bank of America BAC.N and financing units of
Caterpillar CAT.N , Dell Technologies DELL.N , Siemens AG
SIEGn.DE , Canon Inc 7751.T and Volvo AB VOLVb.ST .
(Reporting by Aatreyee Dasgupta in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim
Zahid)
((Aatreyee.Dasgupta@thomsonreuters.com;))