The original list was put together at the request of Jerry Bishop of First Federal Leasing, who had heard of a list floating around, and wanted it for an important meeting with his bank board. I found it, revised it, and have been tweaking it ever since.

Here it is with a name change, and in alphabetical order. Any corrections, additions, or comments are appreciated.

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 ( bankrupt )
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 ABN Amro Bank )
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. )
Nationbank Leasing ( closed )
New England Capital ( sold )
Newcourt ( sold off )
Phoenix ( both divisions )
Prime Capital ( "yes and no" sold off, may be negotiating )
Rockford ( sold to American Express )
SDI ( closed )
T&W ( lost their capital )
Transamerica ( sold )
Unicapital ( reportedly struggling )
United Capital ( reported having problems, very bad quarter )
United Leasing ( out of liquidity )
USA Leasing ( gone )
VGM ( out of business )

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

Swander Speaks

Out I have been reading the comments regarding fraud, or poor business practices. I have to add my two cents worth. The lending industries have struggled with this problem, or in my opinion, too often looked the other way. Sure, we have "bad" people in all parts of our industry - brokers, vendors, lessees, funding sources and suppliers. Are we any different than other industries? Our industry has a very low barrier to entry. Some of us worked hard to establish the CLP program in 1984 as the industry attorneys felt "blackballing" was far too risky. The concept of the CLP program was to recognize those who took the extra effort to become certified. Certification has not worked. Is licensing the way to increase the barrier to entry?

I keep writing good business and enjoy life. I enjoy being able to go to sleep at night knowing I've helped customers get their new equipment, given my funding sources good business, and made a reasonable commission. I'm sorry many of the people in our industry don't agree with me. I won't change my ethical business practices and won't trade my ability to sleep at night for a little extra money.

When I joined the leasing industry, the association meetings were great place to find out who you could trust. It wasn't in the meetings, it was in the bar after the meetings. We all agreed that if someone wanted to cheat us, they could. I see several people circulating within the industry who leave a trail of problems. Do you believe they are going to change? If you see the same trail, and ignore it, shame on you! Question you own ethics and business practices not theirs or others.

I will continue to help the people who help me. I will continue to laugh at the people who ignore the warning signals. I share two great situations for the new people in the industry:

I warned a friend of mine that a broker has a "history" and he should ask more questions before he accept business. He ignored my warning. He has now written off a $250,000 fraud deal and is mad at all brokers. I reminded him - I told you so! We had a beer afterward.

I saw a lessee submit an application claiming his brother as the principal of the business. I asked the owner why he was submitting the application in this manner. He was "coached" by the other leasing company - with his credit, he'd never get approved. I backed away from the transaction. My vendor was very upset as he lost the sale to a competitor. I was able to sleep at night. He never had a sale to be lost. I got his next lease application.
There is plenty of good business to be had with good lessees, good vendors, and good funding sources. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Write good business and encourage you friends to do the same!

Jim
jimswander@sprintmail.com

Mycontracts.com Expands Into Leasing On Line full story appears below ***1

NetBank Now Has 100,000 Customers and Continues to Grow full story appears below ***2

BULLETIN BOARD
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( 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 ).

$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 here the full story about what is happening. Parker Leasing and Financing refuses to return commitment fee and first and last.
6/16

We had been using the Dodson Group for overnight (Airborne) until recently. They were charging us $8.75 per overnight (there 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

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

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 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

--end of Bulletin--

***1

MyContracts.com Selects Vignette V/5 Platform to Help Companies Manage Business Contracts

AUSTIN, Texas, June 19 -- Vignette Corporation (Nasdaq: VIGN), the leading supplier of eBusiness applications, today announced that MyContracts.com, the first Web-based Internet business service to integrate contract management, bench marking, and e-commerce, chose the Vignette V/5 eBusiness platform as the backbone to power its Web site.

MyContracts.com selected Vignette because of its ability to provide rapid time-to-deployment, an open application environment, a flexible architecture, and proven scalability, and its professional services team's expertise.

MyContracts.com is designed for businesses and professionals looking for an effective way to manage multiple contracts. In 1998, 2.2 million small to medium-sized U.S. businesses contracted for a total of $667 billion in corporate real estate, insurance and equipment leasing agreements. MyContracts.com offers these businesses and industries a comprehensive solution to easily manage their business contracts. MyContracts.com's Web-based solution is designed to save time, reduce costs and provide an easy, efficient administrative tool.

The site employs the comprehensive tool sets contained within Vignette's out-of-the-box Integrated Development Environment; the Vignette Application Foundation, which provides a modular and reusable architecture upon which to build; and the flexible application scripting and rapid enterprise integration framework. Vignette allows MyContracts.com to rapidly engineer a sophisticated new application service model that provides a powerful one-stop solution for online contract management, bench marking analysis and procurement exchange.

"Vignette's product platform and highly-talented professional services organization allowed MyContracts.com to achieve the crucial elements of time-to-market and robust functionality combined with a scalable long-term architecture," said MyContracts.com CEO Mark Friedman. "As we aggressively introduce MyContracts.com to businesses around the world, we are confident that Vignette's eBusiness platform will perform beyond our expectations."

About MyContracts.com

MyContracts.com is the first and only Internet business service to integrate contract management, bench marking, and e-commerce, empowering businesses with a one-stop solution for all of their contractual requirements. The service tracks critical dates, financial obligations and terms/conditions for real estate, equipment leases, insurance contracts and service agreements. The MyContracts.com solution saves time and reduces cost through sophisticated contract management tools, up-to-the-minute market research and data, and the business-to-business power of the Web. For more information, visit www.mycontracts.com.

About Vignette Corporation

Vignette Corporation is the leading supplier of E-business applications for building online businesses. Vignette's products enable Internet businesses to create and extend relationships with prospects and customers and ease high-volume transaction exchanges with suppliers and partners, all of which enhances customer satisfaction. Vignette powers more than 600 of the leading dot.com and Fortune 500 E-businesses, including AT&T, BMW, CBS Broadcasting, CNET, Daimler/Chrysler, Simon & Schuster, Sprint, Tandy Corporation and United Airlines. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Vignette Corporation has offices located throughout Europe, Asia, and in Australia and can be found on the Web at http://www.vignette.com.

Press Contacts:

Mike Berman, director of public relations of Vignette Corporation, 512-306-4910, or mberman@vignette.com; or Hedy Baker of Niehaus Ryan Wong, 512-391-4984, or hedy@nrwpr.com, for Vignette.

NOTE: Vignette is a trademark, and V/5 is a registered trademark of Vignette Corp. All other names are the trademarks of their respective companies.

SOURCE Vignette Corporation

CO: Vignette Corporation; MyContracts.com

ST: Texas

IN: CPR FIN MLM

SU: LIC 06/19/2000 13:49 EDT

***2

NetBank Reaches Its 100,000th Active Account

High Yields, Low Fees and Superior Customer Service

Drive Success of Leading Internet Bank

ATLANTA, June 20 /PRNewswire/ -- NetBank, Member FDIC, Equal Housing Lender, (Nasdaq: NTBK) (http://www.netbank.com) and the nation's leading Internet bank, today announced yet another milestone -- achieving 100,000 active accounts since the bank opened. With this announcement, NetBank underscores its position as the fastest growing bank in history.

"This accomplishment demonstrates the growing acceptance of Internet banking and our ability to attract and retain customers," said D.R. Grimes, NetBank chief executive officer. "We're on pace to set a new account growth record for this quarter, and we're thrilled about reaching this important customer milestone so quickly in our history without sacrificing profitability. NetBank continues to set the standard in Internet banking by providing customers the ultimate one-stop banking and financial services site. We have a complete line of attractive products and services, including the best checking account in America - a no fee account that offers free bill pay and pays high interest with no hidden balance requirement or 'limited time' offer."

As a pure Internet bank with no branches, NetBank has dramatically lower costs and fewer employees than traditional banks. NetBank has maintained its commitment to pass along those savings to its customers in the form of higher rates on deposits and no or low fees. NetBank offers customers a compelling value with a well-rounded product line featuring FDIC-insured, interest- bearing deposit products, online bill payment, home equity loans, online mortgage services, and non-bank financial services, including online brokerage services, business equipment leasing services, and a virtual safe deposit box. NetBank also plans to roll out insurance products early in third quarter. NetBank has always done things faster and with greater flexibility than click- and-mortar banks.

About NetBank(R)

NETBANK, Inc, (Nasdaq: NTBK) (http://www.netbank.com), is a financial services company whose sole subsidiary, NetBank, member FDIC, is the first profitable pure Internet bank in the country, having achieved profitability in the past eight successive quarters since receiving its bank charter on July 31, 1997. With over $1.5 billion in assets and customers in all 50 states and 20 foreign countries, NetBank was recently ranked as a Money.com pick for "Best Online Banks." With its low-cost, branchless business model, NetBank is able to reward its customers with high interest rates on deposits with low or no fee banking services. Products and services include free online account access, free checking, free unlimited online bill payment and presentment, free checks, free unlimited ATM use, VISA(R) Check Card, VISA(R) credit cards, online brokerage services, mortgage lending, home equity lines and loans, IRAs, and business equipment leasing services. NetBank is a member of the AFFN, Cirrus, Honor/Star, and NYCE ATM Networks. For more information on NetBank, its products and services, visit the Web site at www.netbank.com, or call 1-888-BKONWEB (256-6932).

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding NetBank's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward- looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.

SOURCE NetBank

CO: NetBank

ST: Georgia

IN: FIN MLM

SU: