Key Equipment Finance President Adam Warner joined other bank-owned equipment finance company leaders recently in sharing insights with The Monitor on performance and industry challenges for 2018.
In the piece, Adam Warner discusses:
- Technology advances, including Key's adoption of blockchain and smart contracts
- The impact of tax reform in accelerating opportunities into the fourth quarter of 2017
- The strength of credit quality and new entrants to the market
- An increase in the number of requests for non-standard documentation
A look ahead
Looking forward, Warner shared his thoughts on challenges related to non-credit risks being taken by finance providers when it comes to non-standard finance offerings, uncertainty over federal policy mid-year, and the difficulty of forecasting economic impacts with talk of trade wars and the upcoming elections.
In his own words
“There are several factors that led to our record growth in 2017," Warner told The Monitor. "First, we had a fair amount of activity at the end of 2016 that moved into 2017, giving us a strong start to the year. That was coupled with a strong level of production coming from new hires and our veterans closing some very large opportunities. We also added some new manufacturer relationships to our already growing vendor space. Finally, the passage of tax reform drove a significant amount of municipal and not-for-profit business in Q4 as these entities looked to capitalize on the higher tax rate in 2017.”
“After record growth last year and on top of tax reform, we expect our bank segment will grow at a more modest rate in 2018,” Warner added. “We are carefully watching the markets with a correlation to oil and gas as well as commodities. Additionally, we are reviewing potential impacts from looming trade tariffs.”
