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Kit Menkin’s Leasing News www.leasingnews.org Monday August 26, 2002 Accurate, fair and unbiased news for the equipment Leasing
Industry -posted daily at www.leasingnews.org--- Friday Leasing News posted at 9:58 am PDT, Friday ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pictures from the Past
- - - -
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in credit, pricing, docs. Email:miri7ca@yahoo.com _____________________________________________________________ Headlines---- CIT
Execs Directors Take Stock Bonuses-Why not? Business
Booming for Asset-Based Lenders-American Banker A
Remade Mellon--- U.S. Banker Magazine Top Story Inside
American Express Business Finance Key
Equip. Names Frank Goveasszo VP Global Biz Dev. ### Denotes Press Release -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Melissa McCord Associated Press Writer MILWAUKEE –– People looking for work won't see an increase
in the number of job openings through the year's end as companies remain
cautious about the economy's recovery, a new survey finds. Twenty-four percent of the companies surveyed expected to
hire more people in the fourth quarter, while 9 percent plan to cut workers,
according to Manpower Inc.'s quarterly survey of 16,000 businesses. The rest of the companies said they either expect to maintain
their current staffing levels or were uncertain about hiring activity
in the fourth quarter. Those numbers compare with 27 percent that expected to add
more jobs and 8 percent that planned cuts in the third quarter. When seasonally
adjusted, the fourth quarter's employment prospects remain stable. "For the balance of the year, job seekers are still
going to be challenged," said Jeffrey Joerres, chairman and chief
executive of Glendale-based Manpower, the nation's biggest staffing company,
which has conducted the survey for 26 years. Past surveys showed hiring prospects often plateau during
an economic recovery, Joerres said. "There's still cautiousness within the companies,"
he said. "Given the economy continues to improve, albeit slowly,
you'll see a bit of an acceleration after the pause." Employment levels will hold steady nationwide except in the
West, which expects a slight decrease in hiring from the third quarter
largely because the region is home to many struggling technology and telecommunications
companies, Joerres said. The finance, insurance and real estate sector is the only
one surveyed that anticipates improved hiring compared to last quarter
and a year ago, the survey found. The manufacturing sector, hit hard by the recession, expects
to maintain a consistent hiring level, which is a significant improvement
over a year ago, Joerres said. The Midwest is leading the nation in the recovery of manufacturing
jobs, while the South expects to experience higher demand for workers
in the services sector. The national unemployment rate for July remained stuck at
5.9 percent with just 6,000 new jobs created last month as businesses
were reluctant to hire back new workers because of corporate accounting
scandals and the plunging stock market. "Everybody took their baby step forward, but now they're
just waiting to see what that next step is," said Doug Thomas, operations
manager of TemPro Staffing of Green Bay. The employment agency has received fewer calls recently,
both from businesses looking for workers and from people looking for jobs,
he said. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the accounting scandals
have affected different sectors at different times and are keeping companies
cautious, said Kris Thompson, president of the National Human Resources
Association. "There's a lot more uncertainty existing right now than
at this time last year," he said. "Thank goodness the economy
is holding on, because things could be a lot worse in light of what's
happened." ––– On the Net: Manpower Inc.: http://www.manpower.com/ ___________________________________________________________ CIT Execs, Directors Take Stock Bonuses—Why Not? By Robert L. Grant, Dow Jones Newswires A group of CIT Group executives and board members have linked
their pay to the company's performance over the next 12 months. According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
seven CIT Group executives received $2.9 million worth of restricted stock
in lieu of cash bonuses for fiscal 2002, which closes at the end of September. The restricted stock, a total of 128,711 shares, fully vests
one year from the Aug. 14 grant date, the filings said. Shares of CIT
closed at $22.20 on Aug. 14, and closed Friday (8/23/02) at $22.75. Executives who chose stock rather than cash included President
and Chief Executive Albert Gamper and Chief Financial Officer Joseph Leone. In addition, directors John Chen and Edward Kelly each elected
to receive 2,064 restricted shares, worth $45,820 on Aug. 14, instead
of receiving cash for their annual retainer, the filings said. William Farlinger and Thomas Kean, two other non-employee
directors, each accepted options for 4,620 shares rather than a cash retainer
fee. The options have an exercise price of $22.20 and are fully vested
but can't be exercised until one year from the Aug. 14 grant date, the
filings said. The insiders' decisions to take stock rather than cash is
consistent with previous communications to the investment community, Yvette
Rudich, director of corporate communications for CIT, told Dow Jones Newswires
Friday. During presentations prior to its July initial public offering,
CIT officials indicated that executives likely would choose restricted
stock over a cash bonus, she said. Tyco International spun off CIT Group , which provides consumer
and commercial financing services, through an initial public offering
of 200 million shares at $23 each on July 2. Rudich said the bonus awards were part of CIT's regular annual
bonus program. She declined to provide additional details of the program. Companies typically disclose executive compensation in proxy
materials that are sent to shareholders prior to their annual meeting. CIT's annual meeting will occur next spring, though no date
has been set, according to Rudich. Business Booming for Asset-Based Lenders-American Banker By Robert Julavits, American Banker Asset-based lenders report a dramatic pickup in demand as
midsize companies and even large investment-grade corporations, turned
down for unsecured credit lines, seek alternative sources of funding. James G. Connolly, the president and chief executive officer
of Fleet Capital, said he expects this year's volume to rise 25% from
last year's. The asset-based lending unit of FleetBoston Financial makes
loans to companies that pledge corporate assets as collateral. "We're
having a big boom right now, and as long as economists are still using
the word 'recovery,' our business will be strong," he said. One sign of the times: Mr. Connolly reports that larger companies
are turning to his unit for asset-based products. Its deals generally
range from $25 million to $100 million, "but we're doing more deals
over $100 million today." Gordon F. Dugan, the president and chief acquisitions officer
at W.P. Carey & Co. LLC, a New York firm that buys commercial real
estate and leases the properties back to their previous owners, said that
its business has also increased significantly. Companies are cashing out their real estate holdings and
leasing back the space "because they don't want to or can't raise
equity" in other ways, Mr. Dugan said. The recession has hit the corporate lending market hard,
according to a second-quarter survey by the Federal Reserve Board. Commercial
and industrial lending in May fell 21% from a year earlier and 45% from
2000, according to the survey, which takes a snapshot of one week during
each quarter. "Banks are still lending, but they're definitely being
more astute, more stringent, and tightening their standards," said
Faris Khan, the associate editor at Loan Pricing Corp. "There have
been some cases where companies have not been able to get money at all." The slowdown is not attributed to a shortage of capital in
the market. The banking system "is swimming in liquidity,"
said Sung Won Sohn, the chief economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in San
Francisco. "There is lots of money out there." Instead, corporate demand for credit has dropped dramatically,
and the companies that want loans are considered too risky to justify
an extension of unsecured credit, bankers and analysts said. Carlos Evans, the executive director for the commercial segment
at Wachovia Corp. of Charlotte, said its typical corporate customers are
borrowing less than they did a year ago. The company's commercial lending
so far this year has fallen about 4% from the same period last year, he
said. Credit prospects are particularly bleak for companies with
sharply declining profits or accounting problems, or in such downtrodden
sectors as telecommunications and energy. "Companies with a weaker
credit profile or in a poorly performing market would find it difficult
to get financing," Mr. Khan said. According to Mr. Sohn of Wells Fargo, "small to medium-size
companies with poor cash flows and thin capital are having some difficulty
borrowing." Mr. Connolly said that Fleet Capital's increased business
has come mostly from new customers, while demand is off dramatically among
existing customers. "There has been a real lack of economic activity,"
he said. "A lot of what we're doing is for companies that have existing
needs, not growing needs." But the boom in asset-based lending contrasts sharply with
FleetBoston's other lending activities. The company took big losses from
loans it made to former investment-grade borrowers that it was still holding
when those firms hit the financial skids. Now it is paring down its large
U.S. corporate loan book and plans to shed more than $10 billion of loans
by next year. Mr. Dugan said that W.P. Carey's sale and leaseback transactions
raise between $20 million and $200 million for companies. Banks typically
lend only 60% of a property's value in an asset-based loan, so leasebacks
can be a more attractive option, he said. Companies can get 100% of the
property's value and get their capital "out of the bricks and sticks
and back into whatever their core business is." A Remade Mellon--- U.S.
Banker Magazine Top Story by John Engen US-Banker.com When Mellon opted out of retail in favor of asset management,
shareholder services and human resources consulting a year ago, analysts
praised CEO Martin McGuinn for his ambition as Pittsburgh locals groaned.
Turning Mellon on its ear wasn’t easy. When Martin McGuinn became CEO of Mellon Bank four years
ago, few expected much change. An attorney by training, the 18-year Mellon
veteran was already 55, the whispers went, a perfect caretaker for the
venerable financial name, but certainly not one to turn the institution
on its ear. Today, the mild-mannered McGuinn is considered something
of a revolutionary. In just three years, he’s sold off Mellon’s credit
card, mortgage, and flagship retail banking operations, among others,
while beefing up the Pittsburgh-based company’s capabilities in areas
like asset management, shareholder services and human resources consulting. The result, McGuinn asserts, is a company—now known as Mellon
Financial—that at once boasts less risk and greater earnings potential
than the one he inherited. “We wanted to be perceived as a growth company,
and yet have more stability and quality in our earnings stream,” he says.
“To achieve that, we had to significantly sharpen our strategic focus.”
The technological shift has been no less stunning. While McGuinn’s Mellon
has spent $1.1 billion on acquisitions, and registered pretax gains of
$1.3 billion from divestitures, it has plowed $1.5 billion into overhauling
its tech capabilities and approach. Today, individual business lines,
not a centralized information technology department, are responsible for
plotting technology strategies and spending, supported by an enterprisewide
infrastructure and technical expertise that sources say has been dramatically
enhanced since his arrival. What’s left is a company with two predominant lines of business,
neither of which directly concerns banking. Today, Mellon ranks as the
world’s sixth-largest global custodian, with nearly $3 trillion in assets
under custody or administration, and No. 7 in asset management, at $610
billion. It’s also a powerhouse in processing and corporate services,
ranking No. 1 globally as a provider of performance analytics and investor
services, fourth in human resources consulting and eighth in cash management. In contrast, it now holds just $8.5 billion in loans on its
books—virtually all of them to corporations or private banking clients.
Mellon rarely lends money unless it’s part of a larger relationship capable
of generating an 18 percent return on equity or better. “The main purpose
of the banking franchise is to further our fee-based business,” says senior
vice chairman Steven Elliott. The transformation hasn’t come without pain or controversy.
Last year’s sale of Mellon’s 345-branch retail bank sparked an outcry
in Pittsburgh, and prompted the state to yank Mellon’s contract to administer
Pennsylvania’s 529 college savings plan. Some warn that Mellon could become
a takeover target if it fails to achieve its return objectives amid fears
of recession and terrorism. The company’s image wasn’t helped when the
Internal Revenue Service yanked a processing contract last year after
it lost or destroyed thousands of tax returns. But analysts are generally enthused. Mellon’s first quarter
net income on continuing operations was $211 million, up from $194 million
a quarter earlier. Earnings-per- share rose 12 percent, to 47 cents. Return
on equity was 24.8 percent, compared to 20.4 percent in the fourth quarter.
“Mellon [has] signaled that it has the capacity to grow at an impressive
pace,” noted Judah Kraushaar, an analyst for Merrill Lynch, in a recent
report. The company now gets 86 percent of its revenues from fees,
more than rivals State Street or Northern Trust, with a virtually even
split between asset management and corporate services. Tom Brown of Second
Curve Capital calls the repositioning “as bold of a transformation as
we’ve seen in the industry,” and says McGuinn has the pieces in place
to grow earnings by 13 percent or more annually. “I would be very surprised
if they weren’t successful.” Remaking one of the nation’s most-revered financial institutions
has been no small feat. Mellon was founded in 1869 by its namesake family,
one of America’s wealthiest. Over time, it bankrolled the rise of America’s
steel industry and played a hand in the founding of such industrial icons
as Alcoa and Westinghouse. Times change. Many old-line steel mills ground to a halt
in the 1980s, bringing economic calamity to western Pennsylvania. By 1987
venerable Mellon itself was left teetering on the edge of bankruptcy,
forcing then-CEO J. David Barnes to resign. His replacement, Frank Cahouet,
engineered a recovery. And by the mid- 1990s, Mellon’s fortunes began
to turn with the acquisitions of asset manager The Boston Co. and mutual-fund
giant Dreyfus Corp. Cahouet declared his goal was to turn Mellon into “a diversified
financial services company with a bank at its core.” Investors sent share
prices soaring, but many remained unclear about the ultimate strategy.
Failed acquisition bids for traditional banking rivals CoreStates Financial
and BankBoston further muddled the picture. In 1998, Mellon had to face
down an unsolicited takeover attempt by the Bank of New York. A short
time later, Cahouet announced he would depart. McGuinn, former general counsel and Mellon’s vice chairman
at the time, concedes he “was hearing from customers and investors that
they were confused.” Within two months of taking the reins in early 1999,
he sold Mellon’s credit card business to Citigroup. By the end of the
year, the company’s mortgage operations, and its teller machine services
unit—businesses where Mellon lacked scale, or that were prone to cyclicality—were
gone. Several, including the mortgage business, were sold at a loss to
speed up the repositioning. “Divesting was really the first step to building
on our strengths,” he explains. In 2000, Mellon went shopping. On the asset-management side,
it bought The Trust Co. of Washington in Seattle, Van Deventer & Hoch
of San Francisco and Boston-based Standish, Ayer & Wood, as well as
the 25 percent of London- based Newton Management Ltd. it didn’t already
own. It also bolstered human resources consulting subsidiary Buck Consultants
with purchases of iQuantic and Unifi, bought out junior partner Chase
Manhattan to take full control of Chase Mellon Shareholder Services, and
bought Eagle Investment Systems, a maker of investment-management software. The most illustrative deal was last year’s sale of the retail
bank to Providence, RI- based Citizens Financial Group. Mellon had already
sold most of its out-of-state branches, but knew it would be dicey to
get rid of its core Pennsylvania franchise. Pittsburgh boasts streets,
colleges and arenas that carry the Mellon name, and McGuinn, who once
ran the retail franchise, had close ties to its employees. “The irony
is, Marty was hired as CEO because he turned around the retail bank and
made it a much stronger performer,” says Jim Schutz, a Chicago-based analyst
with Stephens, Inc., and a former Mellon banker. Early on, McGuinn challenged all business units to devise
three-year plans for achieving his aggressive growth targets. Those that
couldn’t—or that weren’t centerpoints for valuable relationships, such
as corporate lending—were considered candidates for divestiture. Even
though the retail bank contributed nearly 25 percent of Mellon’s total
earnings, it was in slow-growth Pennsylvania, and fell into that category. The sale wasn’t pursued lightly. Mellon’s board, concerned
about how a deal might impact the company’s image, required a buyer that
would commit to keeping most of the employees and branches. Before signing
off on the deal, Mellon officials went so far as to visit the headquarters
of Citizens’ parent, the Royal Bank of Scotland, to assure themselves
of the buyer’s character. Still, to many Pennsylvanians, the sale smacked of betrayal.
“Is this any way to serve the community that helped make you great?” seethed
a Pittsburgh letter writer. The state pulled the previously awarded 529
contract, saying Mellon lacked the in-state distribution it desired. The company countered that its headquarters, along with 8,000
local jobs, would stay put, and noted that it still maintains 19 private
banking centers in the state. (At Mellon’s annual meeting this Spring,
none of the attendees voiced any concerns about Citizens’ post-merger
handling of the branches.) To management, the move is about the future. A major thrust
of the repositioning was creating a firm with stronger long-term growth
prospects, even if that means having lower earnings in the short-term.
While Mellon earned $1.3 billion in 2001, income from continuing operations
was just $749 million. “We asked, ‘Are we better off with more earnings
and lower growth over the next five or 10 years? Or are we better off
with lower earnings from selling [the retail bank], but then have the
market recognize that what’s left is going to produce much stronger growth?’”
vice chairman Elliott explains. “It was difficult to give up 25 percent
of our earnings. But it was clear that we were much better off from a
shareholder-value perspective to have lower earnings today, but a higher
growth rate and P/E.” The result of all this juggling, analysts say, is what could
become the ultimate cross- selling machine for corporate and institutional
clients. By combining its asset- management prowess with recently beefed-up
human resources consulting and processing capabilities, for instance,
Mellon can potentially provide companies with soup-to-nuts employee services
that include plan design, payroll and pension or 401(k) administration
and processing, and management of those retirement assets. And by meeting corporate client demands to make such services
more self-service, Mellon has the potential to gather crucial information
about individuals, and subtly sell them additional investment products.
“There are going to be a lot of natural triggers that spawn information
flows from end-users,” explains Marc Pramuk, senior human resource services
analyst with IDC. “By using indirect prompts and calculators, and making
their service portable, they could get a lot of additional sales.” Technology is central to achieving such promise. This emphasis
has shown up in Mellon’s merger moves, where CIO Allan Woods says his
unit has vetoed a handful of prospective deals. “If we say we’re not comfortable
with it, we get listened to,” he says. It’s also evident in the heavy
tech investments—split almost evenly between infrastructure and development
initiatives—and the hiring of top- flight strategists, including Janey
Place, a highly regarded e-commerce visionary. But McGuinn is clear that technology is merely a means to
an end, not an end in and of itself. Spending authority and accountability
for tech initiatives lies in the hands of business-line managers, who
pay for tech usage out of their own budgets. “We don’t go out building
things and hoping results will come,” Woods says. “The role of technology
here is to support and enhance business-line strategies. Period.” With the bulk of the repositioning done, McGuinn says the
focus is now on making it work. On the technology side, that means continued
investment in security, disaster recovery, and system capacity, and building
the skills to ensure that a diverse, decentralized web of technologies—including
those from recent buyout targets—functions as a whole. “It’s important
to be strategic,” Woods says. “But the devil is in the details.” The same holds for the whole firm. Analysts say shedding
businesses has left Mellon with a short-term problem: At the end of the
first quarter, the company had $2.7 billion in cash on its balance sheet.
“The question is, ‘What will they do with this cash hoard?’” Stephens
analyst Schutz says. “Earnings could drag in the short- term, because
you can’t get a spread on cash in this environment.” Company officials have been making progress. Since McGuinn
took over, Mellon has repurchased more than $4.1 billion in stock. And
even amid this year’s unsteady market conditions, the acquisition pace
has continued with buys of institutional asset manager HBV Capital Management,
which is based in both New York and London, and Weber Fulton & Felman,
a Cleveland money manager. More acquisitions are likely—particularly in
Europe, to bolster the company’s asset-management production and distribution. At a recent price of $30, Mellon shares have fallen more
than 20 percent since the beginning of the year, due mostly to general
market malaise and the company’s disclosure that it had loaned $100 million
to WorldCom, the troubled telecommunications company. But the longer term looks bright. McGuinn promises a company
that is “bigger, stronger and faster-growing” over the next decade, and
says returns on equity will grow by 22 percent a year. Analysts are buying
into the argument. Ten of the 26 who follow the company have its stock
rated a “strong buy,” while seven more have it at a “buy.” Schutz notes
that Mellon shares are trading at a multiple of less than 16 times his
projected earnings per-share of $1.95 for the year, compared to multiples
of 18 to 20 for peers like State Street, and has a $50 price target. Financial performance is how McGuinn and his lieutenants
will ultimately judge the makeover’s success. “The proof will be if this
mix of businesses produces earnings the way we think it can over the next
five years,” Elliott says. If it does, then the new Mellon may merit the
same lofty reputation its predecessor once did. Home Sales Surged in July ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON (AP) -- Motivated by low mortgage rates, house
hunters turned into buyers, sending new-home sales in July to the
highest monthly level on record and giving a solid boost to sales of previously
owned homes. The pair of housing reports, released Monday, provided a
dose of good news for the economic recovery, which has been advancing,
but in fits and starts. Sales of new homes in July climbed to a seasonally adjusted
annual rate of 1.02 million, a record monthly sales pace and a 6.7 percent
hike from June's level, the Commerce Department reported Monday. Meanwhile, sales of existing homes -- the biggest slice of
the housing market - - rebounded in July, rising 4.5 percent from the
previous month to a rate of 5.33 million units, according to the National
Association of Realtors. One of the bright spots of the spotty economic recovery has
been the housing market, which performed well even during last year's
recession, due largely to low mortgage rates. In July, the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage
was 6.49 percent, down from 6.65 percent in June, and well below the 7.13
percent rate for July a year ago, according to Freddie Mac, the mortgage
company. Last week, rates on 30-year mortgages edged up to 6.27 percent,
after dipping to a 32-year low in the prior week. Another factor motivating buyers: Solid appreciation in housing
values. That offers people an attractive investment, especially given
the volatility of the stock market, economists said. In July, those factors offset potentially negative ones,
including eroding consumer confidence and a stagnant job market. ``Things couldn't be better on the financing side. We're
seeing nice, strong upward movements in house values in most places, and
I also think we're still seeing a rally around hearth and home that followed
the 9-11 terrorist attacks,'' said David Seiders, chief economist at the
National Association of Home Builders. However, in June, new-home sales fell 2.6 percent and existing-home
sales plunged 11.1 percent as worries about jobs, the roller-coaster stock
market and the direction of the economy seemed to weigh heavily on prospective
buyers. Yet, even with the declines, the level of sales remained healthy. Economists believe both new-home and existing-home sales
will set records this year. Seiders predicts new-home sales will hit 936,000.
David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors,
is projecting existing-home sales to reach 5.44 million. Hoping to give a helping hand to the recovery, Federal Reserve
policy- makers have held short-term interest rates steady all year. Policy-makers
earlier this month opened the door to future rate reductions. Low rates might induce consumers, the driving force behind
the economy, to keep on spending and businesses to boost investment, fostering
economic growth. By region, new-home sales in July soared 16 percent in the
Midwest to a rate of 203,000, the highest level since December 1993. In
the South, sales jumped 10.1 percent to a rate of 470,000, the highest
level since November. But in the Northeast, sales fell by 9.1 percent to a rate
of 60,000, and in the West, they dipped by 0.4 percent to a rate of 284,000. The average price of a new home in July was $215,200, up
2.8 percent from the same month last year. But the median price -- meaning
half sold for more and half sold for less -- was $170,500, a 2.6 percent
decline from a year ago. For existing homes, July's sales jumped 10.2 percent in the
Midwest to a rate of 1.19 million. In the South, sales rose 6.4 percent
to a pace of 2.17 million and in the Northeast, they went up 4.9 percent
to a rate of 640,000. But in the West, sales slipped 2.9 percent to a
rate of 1.33 million. The median price of an existing home was $162,800 in July,
a 7.3 percent increase from the same month a year ago. ``A continued solid gain in prices of existing homes -- a
proxy for housing wealth-- suggests that rising home equity will continue
to buffer any weakness in equity wealth and sustain household spending,''
said Maury Harris, chief economist at UBS Warburg. ^---- On the Net: New-home sales: http://www.commerce.gov/ Existing-home sales: http://realtor.org --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside American Express Business Finance As an ex -AMEXBF employee I still keep in touch with some
employees. This is what I am hearing from several employees but I don't know
if it is indicative company wide. The rolling stock division is growing in sales as they have
added sales staff but are still lacking in administrative support. Many
customer complaints with misapplication of payments, elevated pay
offs, calls not being returned, paper work screw ups etc which happens when
you ramp up sales and don't ramp up the rest. A lot of things seem to
be falling through the cracks. Hey, but SALES ARE UP, which is encouraging in
this economy. The equipment division has underwent several major compensation
structure cuts and has eliminated quite a few salespeople with another
scheduled employee (in sales) cut happening soon. They are switching
the accounts around that the salespeople handle so one month Salesman
Bob may be handling a large national account and three months later they assign
the account to any other salesperson, which certainly doesn't bode well
for vender retention or reassurance. The equipment division doesn't seem to have the customer
service related problems that the rolling stock division is encountering,
so we would assume then that it may be a problem with that particular field
office or the corporate contacts for that field office. All in all it appears that AMEXBF is going through some growing
pains. Hopefully in this economy the existing employees and the
company can weather the storm. I have a feeling that AMEX may spin off/sell the vehicle
division. Their knowledge appears limited in this part of the leasing industry.
Many of us were hoping that after the acquisition that some FAT would
be cut and processing streamlined, but the company is essentially operating
off the old First Sierra crew and way of doing things. GREAT and WONDERFUL computer operating system but some employees in key positions don't
really care about the overall team concept and are essentially clock punchers.
Instead of reorganizing the First Sierra operating side they have essentially
kept it the same and placed more restrictions on decision-making
and on operations. Much authority has been taken away from prior decision makers
which hurts the credibility of employees. Restructure our compensation program!? (how can anyone stay with a company that year after year changes
its criteria thus causing some salespeople to actually make less and less
money?) It became like trying to turn oranges into lemonade, it just
became a lot of effort spinning your wheels after awhile. And then the broker thing: Yes we can, no we can't, yes we
can for some sales people but no we can't for you. Too many double standards
when it came to taking broker paper. I grew tired of the head butting over common sense items,
the cutting of income, the ever changing internal climates and all the bureaucracy
that it took to get anything done is what pushed me to leave. There is only so many times I can bang my head on the desk.. ( Name With Held ) (Disclaimer: American Leasing hired an American Express Business
Finance business development person, but the person was involved
in the private label leasing program for Cisco. It is true the former sales manager
and others may have left, but this is from a person known to the editor
for perhaps 15 years, plus higher up in the administration. editor ).. National Association of Equipment Leasing Brokers Drops “
Help Desk” “Dear Members: “Due to the popularity of the Leasing Forum, which gives
members immediate access to almost our entire membership to ask questions,
seek suggestions, look for solutions to problems, etc., we will
be closing down the Help Desk phone line that was established in September
2001. “In effect, the Leasing Forum has become the Help Desk! The
Help Desk phone has been getting fewer and fewer calls each month as the
usage of the Leasing Forum has increased. “We are proud of the fact that our members have been so willing
to assist each other in the ways we have seen in the last year and encourage everyone to make use of this unmatched "tool" in
our industry. “As always, NAELB staff and each member of the Board of Directors
are available by phone or email for any questions or concerns. That has not, and will not change. NAELB staff may be reached at the
headquarters office, 800-996-2352 or email info@naelb.org. For a complete list of the Board of Directors, visit the NAELB website at www.naelb.org.
“The effective closure date of the Help Desk phone is August
30, 2002. thanks for your call regarding usage of our NAELB On-Line
Community Discussion Center. You'll
note that I'm always careful not to refer to it as list-serve, (our prior service), since it is very different
and offers so many more features.” Dee DiBenedictis started the help desk last September. She
had over 15 years experience in
the industry working for funding sources such as Denrich Leasing and Unicyn
Funding Group, in capacities ranging from credit and documentation through
collections and marketing. In the beginning, she received many calls, as did the board
of directors, who also field calls directly. When
the association switch from its listserve to a web-based bulletin board, the calls became fewer and fewer as members
were finding answers on the bulletin board. NAELB President Gerry Egan, describes,”“The NAELB On-Line
Community Discussion Center operates like an always-open convention hall
with different topic-oriented 'break-out'
rooms where members can go to post inquiries, make contacts, look for
funding, get documentation assistance and/or legal insights, make or ask
for sales tips, gossip, crack jokes, or generally talk about anything
else they would talk about at a convention. “ All the discussions are stored and fully searchable creating
a valuable research database at their fingertips whenever members need
it. Members who want can post a photograph of themselves
in their profile. Other photos,
spreadsheets or documents can be attached to regular messages. The discussions can be viewed via a web browser
at the user's convenience and/or they can choose to have new postings,
in topics they select, e-mailed to them in either HTML or plain-text format. “All 460, (June 30 figures), NAELB members are automatically
registered to use the Discussion Center. All they need do is access it through the web site using their member ID and password and set their preferences.
So far, just over half of our membership, (235 members), have used
it. About 40% of the users access and read messages but don't post. Maybe they're shy! Though usage varies from day to day and depending on 'hot'
topics, total new postings remain consistent with the usage of our prior list
server. “Our Help Desk number was helpful to many members in learning
to use the Discussion Center but over a period of months, two things
became apparent: [1] As the usage of the Discussion Center went up, calls
to the Help Desk went down; and most calls could be answered just as easily
and quickly through the Discussion Center. NAELB members have always been a uniquely open and sharing group and the Discussion Center is available
24 hours per day, seven days each week. We decided, then, to phase out the Help Desk number. NAELB Member,
and former Board Member, Dee DiBenedictis has done an incredible job of
handling and balancing both of those member benefits. She's well known in our business for being a fountain of
information and experience and has proven her willingness to help others
beyond what anyone could reasonably ask of her. All NAELB members owe her a great thanks.” The Equipment Leasing Association has four list-serve, where
members sign up to communicate with others who have signed up. They have
a tax line and a generally lease line, plus distributed the ELT E-Leasing Newsletter
on Thursday and the Industry News Weekly
newsletter on Tuesday, to those members who subscribe. It
is direct, much faster, and more convenient to use, but it does not have a bulletin board to collect sent messages
and responses to them. The ELA list serve is strictly business. More lessors and funders utilize it rather than the NAELB, where mostly brokers exchange information. Sources for leases overseas, large dollar amounts, or hard
to lease equipment such as ATM, trucks and trailers, software only
are answered quickly on the ELA listserve. The United Association of Equipment Leasing has been considering
a “list-serve” for its members, but according to reliable sources, needs
to first get its member directory in a different format to organize the e-mail process.
A new “contact management” system is being put into place. The NAELB On-Line Community Discussion Center has many categories
and allows members to start new ones. Its popularity has eliminated
the old “Help Desk” approach. NAELB is also the first to go on line with its newsletter,
plus is sent to all members with an e-mail address. To learn more about the “On-Line Community Discussion Center,”
please contact NAELB President Gerry Egan, who is also president of TecSource, Inc.: 5621 Departure Drive, Suite 113 Raleigh, NC 27616 Phone: 919-790-1266 Fax: 919-790-2262 E-Mail: mailto:GerryEgan@ForEquipmentLeasing.com Internet: www.ForEquipmentLeasing.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please send Leasing News to a colleague, as we are trying
to build our readership. ################# #################################
NAMES FRANK D. GOVEASZZO VICE
PRESIDENT, GLOBAL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT SUPERIOR, CO, Key Equipment Finance, one of the nation's largest bank-affiliated equipment financing companies, announced
that Frank D. Goveaszzo has been named vice president, global business
development. In this role, Goveaszzo is responsible for identifying and attracting
new vendor clients to Key Equipment Finance and its international
operations. His office is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "Frank has been extremely successful in the vendor development
area," said Paul A. Larkins, president and chief executive officer, Key
Equipment Finance. "His knowledge and experience will be a strong
asset to Key." Goveaszzo has nearly 15 years of experience in the equipment
finance industry. Prior to joining Key, he held the position of vice
president of business development at Heller Global Vendor Finance (now
G.E. Capital Vendor Financial Services) and, earlier, was vice president
of wholesale business development for Bank of America Vendor Finance,
Inc. He is a graduate of Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
where he received his bachelor of science degree in business administration
(with a concentration in finance). Key Equipment Finance is an affiliate of KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY)
and provides business-to-business equipment financing solutions to businesses
of many types and sizes. They focus on four distinct markets: · small businesses
in the U.S.; · mid-to-large
size businesses in the U.S. and Canada for acquisitions from $5,000 and up; · equipment manufacturers,
distributors and value-added resellers worldwide; and · federal, state
and local governments as well as other public sector organizations. Headquartered outside Boulder, Colorado, Key Equipment Finance
oversees an $8 billion equipment portfolio with annual originations of
approximately $3 billion. The company, which operates in 25 countries and
employs more than 600 people worldwide, has been in the equipment financing
business for nearly 30 years. Additional information regarding Key Equipment
Finance, its products and services can be obtained online at KEFonline.com. Cleveland-based KeyCorp is one of the nation's largest bank-based
financial services companies, with assets of approximately $81 billion.
Key companies provide investment management, retail and commercial banking,
retirement, consumer finance, and investment banking products and services
to individuals and companies throughout the United States and,
for certain businesses, internationally. The company's businesses deliver
their products and services through KeyCenters and offices; a network
of approximately 2,400 ATMs; telephone banking centers (1.800.KEY2YOU);
and a Web site, Key.com, that provides account access and financial
products 24 hours a day. Contact: Lisa A.
Miller, Key Equipment Finance Phone: (518) 257-8235 Fax: (518)
257-8821 On vacation:
August 26-Sept. 4. If you have questions during that timeframe, please contact Tricia Akins at (720) 304-1300. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Make Changes E-Mail. You may subscribe
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