Finance & Leasing Association8 February 2013
New figures from the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that despite a general fall in new business during December, asset finance deals of up to £20 million grew by 5% in 2012, taking the total to £20.6 billion. Overall, including high value finance, (including aircraft, ships and rolling stock) new business was 3% higher than in 2011.
Julian Rose, Head of Asset Finance at the Finance & Leasing Association, said: “More firms, especially smaller ones, are seeing asset finance as an affordable solution to their business equipment investment needs, but more can be done to further increase awareness.
“We launched the Small Business Finance Directory website last year to help businesses find asset finance brokers and lenders in their local area, and are currently discussing with Government ways for their proposed Business Bank to promote further take-up of this important source of finance for small firms.”
In 2012, the plant and machinery, IT equipment and used car finance markets each reported double-digit growth of 12% (to £4.3 billion), 17% (to £1.4 billion) and 30% to (to £0.9 billion) respectively.
| Dec 2012 | % change on Dec 2011 | 3 months to Dec 2012 | % change on prev. year | 12 months to Dec 2012 | % change on prev. year | |
| Total FLA asset finance (£m) | 1,622 | -22 | 5,303 | -6 | 21,434 | +3 |
| Total excl. high value (£m) | 1,619 | -15 | 5,209 | 0 | 20,648 | +5 |
| Data Extracts: | ||||||
| Plant and machinery finance (£m) | 302 | -15 | 1,018 | +1 | 4,269 | +12 |
| Commercial vehicle finance (£m) | 336 | -25 | 1,152 | -4 | 4,626 | +4 |
| IT equipment finance (£m) | 201 | -13 | 397 | +3 | 1,355 | +17 |
| Business equipment finance (£m) | 161 | -37 | 455 | -16 | 1,849 | -6 |
| Car finance (£m) | 460 | -7 | 1,676 | +9 | 6,621 | +5 |
| Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance (£m) | 11 | -72 | 143 | +31 | 494 | -11 |
Note to editors:
- The Directory (www.smallbusinessfinancedirectory.co.uk) was developed by the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) and the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) with the support of the Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA It is the first comprehensive Directory of its kind to cover the UK as a whole. It includes a search facility based on the region, town or postcode of local sources of finance and brokers.
- 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.
