Finance & Leasing Association8 March 2013
New figures from the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that core asset finance new business1 grew by 5% in January 2013 compared with the same month in 2012. This was driven by the business equipment and car finance sectors which reported new business up by 6% and 15% respectively.
Commenting on the statistics, Julian Rose, Head of Asset Finance at the Finance & Leasing Association, said: “After a slow December, this is a promising start to the year.
“We also hope that the Chancellor will announce, in the Budget, some new support from the Government’s Business Bank for more asset finance-based investment in the UK economy.”
The commercial vehicle, plant and machinery, and IT equipment finance sectors all reported slightly lower new business levels in January than in the same month in 2012.
| Jan 2013 | % change on Jan 2012 | 3 months to Jan 2013 | % change on prev. year | 12 months to Jan 2013 | % change on prev. year | |
| Total FLA asset finance (£m) | 1,520 | 0 | 4,895 | -11 | 21,429 | +2 |
| Total leasing and hire purchase excluding high value (£m) | 1,314 | +5 | 4,256 | -4 | 18,158 | +5 |
| Data Extracts: | ||||||
| Plant and machinery finance (£m) | 299 | -3 | 969 | -3 | 4,260 | +9 |
| Commercial vehicle finance (£m) | 315 | -3 | 1,044 | -9 | 4,612 | +3 |
| IT equipment finance (£m) | 68 | -1 | 365 | -4 | 1,354 | +17 |
| Business equipment finance (£m) | 126 | +6 | 426 | -22 | 1,860 | -5 |
| Car finance (£m) | 542 | +15 | 1,566 | +5 | 6,690 | +5 |
| Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance (£m) | 15 | -1 | 81 | -30 | 495 | -4 |
Note to editors:
- Asset finance new business provided through leasing and hire purchase excluding high value finance where the project cost is £20 million or more.
- In 2012 FLA members provided £76.3 billion of new finance to UK businesses and households. £21.4 billion of finance was provided to businesses and the public sector, representing around 28% of all fixed capital investment (excluding real property and own-account software) in the UK last year.
- Data for asset finance by channel showed a fall in the broker asset finance market in January of 15%. Structural changes to the broker asset finance market in the final quarter of 2012 have contributed to these results.
