July 17, 2000

Fidelity Leasing Announcement from EAB
Leaseforum Launches Service to Lessors/Brokers
   plus offers off-lease and surplus lease exchange
The List "Up-Date"
   Estarlita Green, Cindy Spurdle, Ken Greene
   Bulletin Board


EAB Announces purchasing Fidelity Leasing,"... a small-ticket lessor that specializes in Web-based delivery of credit-scored vendor lease programs."

EAB Leasing Department Ranks 11th Among U.S. Bank Leasing Companies

UNIONDALE, N.Y., July 17 /PRNewswire/ -- EAB's Leasing Department, headed by Executive Vice President Ira Z. Romoff, has moved to 11th place among bank leasing companies across the United States, based on volume of business, as ranked by the Monitor, the leasing and financial services publication, in its May/June 2000 issue. EAB reported new volume at $1.279 billion in 1999. The ranking was driven by a surge in the leasing operation's results, up 46 percent over 1998. The publication also ranks the department 33rd by volume among all U.S. leasing entities, up from 40th place in 1998.

Elaborating on his department's impressive growth, Mr. Romoff said: "EAB's leasing business provides a range of options to many industries -- including those requiring computer, high-tech, medical, office, laboratory, manufacturing, machine tool, light construction, and golf equipment. WASCO Funding Corp., in New York City; American Equipment Leasing (AEL), in Reading, Pennsylvania; and Bankers Leasing Association of Northbrook, Illinois, are part of our operation, which enables us to do business nationwide, including providing credit to hundreds of leasing companies. With this latest ranking we also went from 46th place to 42nd, based on assets, with $2.104 billion in receivables, a 43 percent increase. We're the 11th largest bank-affiliated leasing operation in the country in this category. And we now rank 6th among all foreign-affiliated lessors. All this occurred in a year in which EAB made no additional leasing acquisitions. Our focus on the bottom line is very intense."

EAB's leasing operation is ranked among foreign-affiliated lessors because EAB is a wholly owned subsidiary of ABN AMRO Bank N.V., headquartered in the Netherlands and the world's sixth largest bank, by assets. Mr. Romoff also manages ABN AMRO Canada's leasing portfolio. EAB is a network member of ABN AMRO North America (AANA). By volume, that network, comprised of EAB, LaSalle Leasing, and Lease Plan, through its combined volume and assets, brought AANA to 5th place among all bank-affiliated lessors. These combined AANA entities make the operation the 17th largest in the United States by volume ($2.971 billion) and the 18th largest by assets ($5.5 billion). Among foreign-affiliated leasing operations, AANA now ranks as number one.

Brendan J. Dugan, EAB's president and COO, who guided the bank's initial purchase of an equipment leasing entity in 1994, commented: "We're very pleased about the impressive gains Mr. Romoff and the Leasing Department are sustaining. His dedication to finding financial solutions for our diverse clientele has made EAB a leader in providing leasing services for small and mid-sized companies and funding for lessors, as the continued rise in our rankings demonstrates."

Mr. Romoff took the opportunity to announce that EAB has signed an agreement to purchase Fidelity Leasing, Inc. (FLI), later this summer from Resource America, Inc. FLI is a successful small-ticket lessor that specializes in Web-based delivery of credit-scored vendor lease programs.

EAB is a New York State chartered commercial bank with assets of $15 billion and 100 branches in the New York metropolitan area. In addition to its branch network and nationwide leasing offices, the bank operates lending production facilities in Connecticut and New Jersey. ABN AMRO, with assets of $460 billion, has offices at 3,500 locations in 76 countries and territories.

SOURCE EAB

CO: EAB; ABN AMRO Bank N.V.; Fidelity Leasing, Inc.; Resource America, Inc.

ST: New York

IN: FIN

SU: RTG

07/17/2000 13:32 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com


LeaseForum Takes Commercial Equipment Leasing Online; Launches a Differentiated Suite of Integrated Web-based Solutions for Lease Management

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 17, 2000--LeaseForum, Inc., today announced the launch of its commercial equipment leasing marketplace, featuring a differentiated suite of integrated Web-based solutions for managing the life cycle of corporate equipment leases. LeaseForum enables lessees and lessors to originate leases, manage them across the enterprise, and re market off-lease and surplus equipment. Combining a full-featured exchange with a powerful auction and user-friendly Application Service Provider (ASP) tools, LeaseForum provides corporations singular access to the funding sources and solutions they need to streamline and standardize leasing initiatives across departments, divisions or the enterprise.

"LeaseForum offers a one of a kind approach that drives efficiency and productivity," said Susan S. Franklin, president and chief executive officer of LeaseForum. "Designed primarily for Fortune 1000 corporations that operate numerous plants and facilities nationwide or internationally, the LeaseForum suite of customer-centric, Web-based solutions provide lessees a platform to cost-effectively identify, track and manage their leased equipment as well as fixed assets."

According to Franklin, "LeaseForum enables lessees to gain control and financial confidence that reinforces their ongoing commitment to leasing. Participating lessors can deliver value beyond financing, transforming them from funding sources to strategic partners, and turning what has traditionally been a transactional business into a relationship business."

The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that domestic commercial equipment leasing market has grown to more than $220 billion annually and it is estimated that today, U.S. corporations are managing nearly $1 trillion in active equipment leases.

About LeaseForum

Headquartered in Boston's financial district, LeaseForum is the only online commercial equipment leasing marketplace providing an integrated suite of Web-based solutions for managing the leasing life cycle. LeaseForum enables lessees and lessors to originate leases, manage them across the enterprise and re market off-lease or surplus equipment. For additional information, visit www.leaseforum.com or www.remarketxchange.com.

CONTACT:

LeaseForum, Inc.

Susan S. Franklin

617-443-9910

ssf@leaseforum.com

or

Donovan Group

Philip O'Brien

or

Stephanie Fraleigh

508-393-1433


33 Leasing Companies Major Changes in the last Six Months:

American Business Leasing ( gone )
Bankvest (bankrupt)
Bombadier ( reported having problems, not confirmed )
C&W Leasing (acquired by Granite who was acquired by Fidelity National Title)
Charter Financial ( purchased by Wells Fargo )
Commerce Security ( closed )
Copelco ( sold to Citibank )
Dana ( sold off, active as captive )
DVI Capital ( out of broker )
Fidelity ( acquired by EAB, a wholly owned subsidiary of ABN AMRO Bank N.V., headquartered in the Netherlands )
Finova ( out of market place )
Franklin Bank ( no more leases )
Imperial ( sold portfolio )
Leasing Corp of America ( for sale below book value )
Leasing Solutions ( bankrupt )
Libery Leasing ( closed )
Linc Capital ( out of vendor and broker business, Nasdaq halts stock sales )
Merit Leasing ( gone )
METWEST LEASING CO. Spokane WA. ( advising brokers that they have run out of funds so they are unable to fund a transaction we have there for funding. )
Metrolease---many rumors floating around the marketplace, reported by several sources no more broker business, cannot confirm or deny )
Nationbank Leasing ( closed )
New England Capital ( sold )
Newcourt ( sold off )
Phoenix ( both divisions )
Prime Capital ( "yes and no" sold off, may be negotiating )
R ockford ( sold to American Express )
SDI ( closed )
T&W ( bankrupt, lost their listing )
Transamerica ( sold )
Unicapital ( reportedly struggling, fighting back, good reports )
United Capital ( coming back, changes, good reports )
United Leasing ( re-financing )
USA Leasing ( gone )

any comments, corrections, additions, or suggestions are greatly appreciated.


Kit, What a great "Leasing News"! Have a good day! Estarlita

Estarlita Greene
estarlita@uael.org


Kit: Thank you once again for all of your hard work assembling this newsletter. I read it every day to keep up with all that is happening in the industry. It is a real benefit to me right now. Being out of the mainstream is tough! Keep up the good work!
Cindy

Cynthia Spurdle
cspurdle@dellnet.com


Kit, Great letter. Keep up the impressive work.

All my best,
Ken Greene
KGreene100@aol.com


BULLETIN BOARD

( These are postings for informational purposes. Any response, correction, addition, will be posted. We reserve the right to edit or delete any opinion that is not in good taste or is outright derogatory ).

Universal Capital Cut Off by BSB 7/12
Universal Capital Service 7/5
Parker Leasing and Financing 6/16
Dodson Group complaint 6/15
Universal Capital Service 6/12
Metropolitan Group Question 6/12

 

Bruce Zwillinger, BSB, cuts off Universal Capital Service


Bruce Zwillinger, BSB, cuts off Universal Capital Service, Springhill, Florida informs NAELB of their action. This company not returning money to lessee from deal funding by BSB. Many attempts to get money returned to lessee, but many broker promises by Universal Capital Service.
7/12

Universal Capital Services

Source states Universal Capital Services, Springhill, Florida, took up-front fees on deal and has not returned to lessee. Lessee is complaining to funding source. This is the third complaint received on this. Source is trying to find out more and request this be posted on bulletin board. Source will allow us to state name, if this is not resolved.

7/5

Parker Leasing

$25,000 SD $29,000 first and last three months did not return money Parker Leasing and Financing, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida no web site, no district attorney complaints, advised to pull a D&B, find out who the secured parties are and if I can identify them, will give them the person to call at the funding source to hear the full story about what is happening. Parker Leasing and Financing refuses to return commitment fee and first and last.

6/16

Dodson Group - Delivery Charge

We had been using the Dodson Group for overnight (Airborne) until recently. They were charging us $8.75 per overnight (their cost to Airborne is $7.61, who cares, they deserve a profit). But, in auditing our bills for the last 2 years we kept noticing that we were being repeatedly charged $12.00 to $18.75 for overnight on about 1/3 to 1/2 of the over nights. Initially, Dodson claimed "overweight", so we researched further and discovered that most of the overcharges were on checks going out overnight to vendors and brokers - no way this could be "overweight". For the past year we have faxed and called Dodson repeatedly to get corrected invoices - no one would even respond! So, we put them on notice that we would not pay any more invoices until they corrected their over billing problem - they never did. Their response was to turn us over to a collection agency! We are convinced they purposely overcharged us, and probably every other client! Dodson does a lot of biz with NAELB brokers, don't these brokers need to know about Dodson's policy of quoting one price and charging another?

6/15

Universal Finance / Universal Manufacturing

Avoid this company like the plague. I believe that if it is the same one they also run companies under the name(s) Universal Manufacturing - (Vendor) & Universal Finance (Credit repair company). I'll look up the e-mail I received on this a while back. I think what the story was is that Universal Capital would submit a deal to funding source, then if declined due to personal credit, Universal Finance would repair credit then resubmit elsewhere. The vendor would be Universal Manufacturing who would sell $2,000 computers for $40,000 invoice (just under F/S disclosure). Then they split excess with lessee. Though I'm not sure about the Florida part. I'll get back with the additional info ASAP.

6/12

Universal Capital

Do you know anything about Univerasl Capital Services, Inc., in Spring Hill, Florida 34606. One of the lease brokers I work with is having trouble getting paid on a deal. He thinks the company is owned by Jim and Anita Koper. Please let me know if you hear anything. Thanks.

6/12

Metropolitan Mortgage

Metropolitan Mortgage and Sec in Washington had a division that funded the lesser credits. Well they have stopped and are not honoring their approvals if they don't already have signed docs. This was told to me by a broker in Arizona who has 10 deals sitting with them and she is now scrambling to replace them.

6/12


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