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Headlines--- Pictures from the Past--Jim
Lahti,CLP,1994 T-Bill
Rates rise in latest auction Jerry
Newell: Trinity Capital $180M R+ $900M Management Caterpillar
3rd Quarter 2002 Earnings AGL&F
Annual Conference---November 20-22 CBIZ
Property Tax Solutions and Tax Partners Form Marketing Alliance
Employees to get 30-day notice of 401(k)
lockout periods
Father of 401(k) takes pride despite account's
flaws Phone
bills going up----Long-distance firms try to recoup losses -
Despite loss, New England Revolution won hearts ###
Denotes Press Release ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1994
Jim
Lahti, CLP Affiliated Corporate Services Lewisville, Texas (President CLP Foundation, past
president of United Association of Equipment
Leasing ) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- T-Bill Rates rise in latest
auction By Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) Interest rates on short-term
Treasury bills rose in Monday's auction to the highest levels
in nearly three months. The Treasury Department auctioned $18 billion
in three-month bills at a discount rate of 1.665 percent. Another
$16 billion in six-month bills was auctioned, also at a discount
rate of 1.665 percent. The three-month rate was up from 1.630 percent
last week and was the highest since three-month bills averaged
1.680 percent on July 29. The new six-month rate, which had also
been 1.630 percent last week, was the highest since 1.690 percent
on July 29. The new discount rates understate the actual
return to investors 1.696 percent for three-month bills with a
$10,000 bill selling for $9,957.90 and 1.703 percent for a six-
month bill selling for $9,915.80. In a separate report, the Federal Reserve said
Monday that the average yield for one- year Treasury bills, the
most popular index for making changes in adjustable rate mortgages,
rose to 1.77 percent last week from 1.59 percent the previous
week. Jerry Newell: Bank of the
West/Trinity Capital $180M R+ $900M Management There has been speculation for several days
in Leasing News regarding discussions between Trinity Capital Corporation
and Bank of the West. I
am pleased to confirm the following: Bank of the West and privately held equipment
leasing company Trinity Capital Corporation have signed a letter of
intent for an acquisition making San Francisco-based Trinity Capital a wholly
owned subsidiary of Bank of the West. The parties are now negotiating a definitive
agreement and expect to finalize this transaction within the next 30
days. Both companies view
this combination as highly desirable. This transaction underscores Bank of the West's
commitment to equipment leasing as a core product line. Bank of the West has operated a nationwide funding business for equipment leasing brokers
for 30 years and provides direct equipment leases to bank customers.
Bank of the West's equipment lease portfolio currently exceeds $400 million.
The Bank will continue to strongly support and grow its broker funding
business which represents more than three-quarters of its portfolio. In particular,
we want our lease brokers to know that Bank of the West values
their business and will continue to protect brokers' interests in their
transactions. The addition of Trinity Capital will further expand the scope
of the bank's equipment leasing product line, but is not intended to
compete with the bank's existing leasing businesses. Moreover, the market focus of Trinity Capital is sufficiently different from Bank of the West's
broker funding business that we do not anticipate any overlap. Trinity Capital will operate as a separate subsidiary
of Bank of the West and owners Jim and Donna Halow will continue
in their executive positions. Trinity Capital Corporation was launched 22
years ago by the Halows. Specializing in nationwide vendor leasing for
several vertical market niches, Trinity has an owned lease portfolio
of approximate $180 million in receivables and also operates an equipment lease
servicing business with nearly $900 million in leases under management.
About Bank of the West The third-ranked commercial bank headquartered
in California, San Francisco-based Bank of the West serves 1.5
million retail and commercial customers in six states, as well as through
such national specialty business lines as equipment leasing, religious institution
and SBA lending. With 300 branches in California, Oregon, Washington,
Idaho, Nevada and New Mexico, $26 billion-asset Bank of the West is a subsidiary
of BancWest Corporation, a unit of Paris-based BNP Paribas, France's
largest listed bank. Jerry Newell, CLP Senior Vice President Equipment Leasing Bank of the West jnewell@bankofthewest.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Caterpillar 3rd Quarter 2002
Earnings Sites of Reference: http://www.cat.com/about_cat/investor_information/02_financials/01_quarterly_results/pdf/3q02_cat_inc.pdf (courtesy ELAonline.com) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CLP Exam---Three Pass Test Unofficial, there were four who took the Certified
Leasing Professional Test at the San Diego United Association of Equipment
Leasing Conference. Readers who have been following the comments
by Jeffrey Taylor of ExecutiveCaliber
- Global Lease Training, regarding the program ( out of date book,
training material, tutoring, instructors
)---He did pass!!! Jeff
also volunteered to help out with the CLP program. List
of CLP’s ( to be up-dated) http://www.clpfoundation.org/Departments/CLPorderbylastname.htm List of companies who have certified leasing
professional working for them: http://www.clpfoundation.org/Departments/CLPorderbycompany.htm --- Guess
the news on Trinity means that even the most successful independents
look ahead and see only rough waves as far as liquidity and access to reasonable capital
are concerned? Steve
Chriest schriest@sbcglobal.net ------------------------------------- Three Types of Equipment Leasing Sales People I HAVE FOUND THAT THERE ARE THREE KIND OF SALES
PEOPLE IN THE LEASING BUSINESS: THOSE
THAT CAN COUNT AND THOSE THAT CAN'T ".
Bob Baker CLP ___________________________________________________
Alert---Total Control Trucking, Tucker,GA and Cahaba Business Systems,Atlanta,GA. I don't know the details that Larry Summers
at Diversified Leasing faced in his email that appeared in your column yesterday,
but First Sierra experienced over $600,000 in losses in the eastern
part of Atlanta in 1998/99 before taking the proper precautions
with site inspections. Since my days at First Sierra investigating
these frauds in behalf of the company, several frauds were attempted against LPI, but
we were able to avoid them due to our experience with the First Sierra
mistakes. As much as I love the Atlanta area, anyone who does a lease in the
Tucker, Norcross or Duluth areas of Atlanta should demonstrate extreme
care due to the prevalent Nigerian fraud in these areas. Until a few months ago, the INS had a Nigerian
Fraud Squad in Atlanta until someone higher up in the INS decided
that preventing fraud was not as important as hinting that Nigerians
might be guilty of perpetuating more fraud than any other nationality
in Atlanta. I have the quarterly INS publications that verified
that some Nigerians are trained in fraud even before leaving Nigeria
and coming to America to realize the American dream of unearned wealth. For
those of you who feel I may be discriminating, forget it since
I have I lived it and have the fraud newsletters issued by this
task force to banks, police and financial institutions. These Nigerian frauds extend from credit card
fraud against the elderly to lease fraud to email scams. Like
Miami and Dade County, anyone doing business in Atlanta should use
extreme caution. Maybe Larry's fraud is not Nigerian made, but
I would be willing to bet the ranch they are since the bank they
used is the same bank that First Sierra had on its applications in 1999. I guess a good tip off
came on the First Sierra frauds came when the bank answered "hello"
when called late at night. Good
luck Larry and let us know if we can help". Charlie Lester ---- Branding in Leasing— I read Friday's leasing News and completely
agree with Andrew Thorn's comment on branding. During the past four plus years we have focused on clearly identifying
and marketing our own distinctive brand and thereby differentiating
ourselves from competition. Currently
70% of our new business is from existing customers or referred
by existing customers. I attribute this, in great part, to our marketing
ourselves. Rick Wilbur rick@mediacap.com Managing Partner Media Capital Associates, LLC 480-941-8558 ext. 104 480-941-4588 - Fax --- Andrew Thorn, NowLease, original opinion: "Branding is possible in the leasing industry
and the successful companies of the future will be those that develop
a good brand. Anybody that is unable to distinguish themselves
from their competitors and establish uniqueness will not last very
long in this market. We have seen the rise and fall of those companies
who operated under the basic assumption that leasing was a commodity
and their offering consisted only of low price. Where are they now? A firm's ability to differentiate, is the core of the brand. Discovering what the core should be can only be accomplished by discovering
what your target market is.
Without a differentiator there is little chance for success. "This is only my opinion, but I think we
need to wake up and discover that our industry is changing and requires us
to look at the successful business practices of other industries and apply
them to our own. I call it the maturation of our industry." --- I read with interest the comments by Andrew
Thorn and Jeffrey Taylor regarding "brand identity" in the
leasing or commercial finance business. I
find myself agreeing and disagreeing with both of them. While I agree with Jeff Taylor's assertion that
it is difficult to build an identifiable brand in the leasing industry,
I fundamentally disagree that is near to impossible to brand an intangible.
Hey Jeff. "Can you Yahoo?" The Internet has produced a wealth of brands that are comprised of intangible products. When was the last time you ate, drank, cuddled, or spoke to your "Google". Andrew Thorn's assertion, on the other hand,
that differentiation is key to long term success is totally accurate.
I could not agree more. Long ago (12 years) when The American Lease Exchange,
(LeaseNOW's old name) went live on the "Prodigy Interactive Video
Text Service" we thought that we would be able to build a lasting brand
identity. When we developed software and interfaced it with the
Fair-Isaac SBSS scoring system and gave it to vendors for free, we differentiated
our company from our competitors. These things have made us a very successful
leasing company but we certainly can't brag that we have "brand
identity". That's
the bad news. Here's
the good news. CIT doesn't
have a recognizable brand identity with the general buying public either
and they have spent a lot more time, effort and money that LeaseNOW has
to build one. The reason is, that in the modern world, commercial
enterprises are far less brand directed than they used to be. Even
when the brand is recognized there is little evidence to support
that the brand will influence the final buying decision. It may
help you get in the door, if people think of it, that is. In our industry "brand identity" matters
even less. Here's why. How many potential customers walk into a vendor,
look at their product, decide they want to acquire it, and then ask,
"By the way Mr. Vendor, do you do business with ABC leasing company?"
It just doesn't happen that way. In
fact, I would be willing to bet that, if you called 500 known leasing customers and asked them to name the
top 5 equipment finance companies in the United States, you'd almost
get 500 different answers with the possible exception of GE Capital, who
as we know "Brings Good Things to Life". Unless and until leasing becomes a conscious, pre-sale/pre-acquisition, consumer choice, as
opposed to a choice that is driven by the decision to purchase, brand
identity won't be important because it does not primarily influence our
lessee. The lessee will defer to the vendor because the lease is, at
that point, just a means to an end which is the completion of the acquisition.
While Jeff was right that a brand in our industry is not important,
he missed on the fact that it's not important because it isn't tangible.
It's not important because it isn't the primary product, it's merely
a means of acquiring the primary product. "Brand Identity" in this business
is often confused with "reputation". I would advise Andrew to build on his good reputation
and not divert valuable resources to building a brand name.
Having a great reputation in the leasing industry is, at this time, an
salient and very important point of differentiation. Even if you are moderately successful in building a brand that is recognized by your
peers, it will matter little to the customer that eventually makes the buying
decision. Bob Rod, CLP President LeaseNOW, Inc. drlease@leasenow.com AGL&F Annual Conference---November
20-22 ---Cities, Counties, States Sales Tax and other
income is drastically down. To
acquire capital assets, they are doing more and more leasing.--- TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO RESERVE ROOMS AT THE
AGL&F HOTEL RATE FOR THE
ANNUAL CONFERENCE. AFTER TODAY HOTEL ROOM RATES WILL LIKELY INCREASE BY 50% AND WE HAVE A VERY LIMITED NUMBER ROOMS REMAINING
UNDER OUR BLOCK. ******************** Hotel Reservation Deadline: TODAY- 5:00
PM- MONDAY - OCTOBER 21 **************************** Association for Government Leasing and Finance
Early Discounted Registration Deadline: EXTENDED ONE WEEK TO OCTOBER 28 The Annual Fall Conference is right around the
corner! On behalf of Conference Co-Chairs John Merchant and Debra
Saunders, I cordially invite you to the 2002 Fall Annual Conference
of the Association for Governmental Leasing and Finance (AGL&F). AGL&F 2002 ANNUAL MEETING - AVAILABLE AT
www.aglf.org and attached. November 20-22 Disney's Yacht & Beach Club Resorts Orlando, Florida The AGL&F Annual Fall Conference remains
the premiere business conference for our industry's leaders. Of course,
our social functions create the perfect setting for networking
or making new friends and business contacts. We have two great evening events planned on
the 20th and 21st of November. The
Thursday night banquet is included in the registration fee; however, the Cirque du Soleil - La Nouba
tickets are an additional cost ($35.00), but that is 50% of
the regular cost per ticket. All
evening events are suitable for children of all ages. We are at Disney, so everyone should have a
great time! I would also like to remind everyone, that the
2002 Fifty State Survey will be released at the conference and
we will dedicate one of the sessions to a review and discussion of the
changes since 2000, the date of the Survey's last release. The Annual Conference brochure and registration
form is available at www.aglf.org . - Please fax your registration to AGL&F
Headquarters at 202-833.3636 no later than October 21 for the
Early-Bird discounted registration rate. Please make your hotel reservations immediately to avoid any inconvenience. Thank you. In the meantime, please feel free to call me
or AGL&F Executive Assistant Brian Mandrier, if you have any questions
(202.742.AGLF) or need additional information. We look forward to seeing you at Disney! Cordially, Graham Hauck Executive Director Attachment P.S.:
Sponsorship Opportunities are still available.
Please call AGL&F Headquarters for more information
and to confirm your sponsorship. -- Graham Hauck Executive Director Association for Governmental Leasing and Finance 1255 23rd Street, NW Washington, DC 20037 202.742.AGLF (2453) fax: 202.833.3636 email: gsh@aglf.org #### ################################################## CBIZ Property Tax Solutions
and Tax Partners Form Marketing Alliance CBIZ Property Tax Solutions, Inc. and Tax Partners,
LLC have formed an alliance to bring a coordinated outsourced
sales, use and property tax solution to the leasing industry.
While sales, use and property tax compliance are very different
tax functions requiring unique systems and core competencies,
they share one thing in common - both are a serious burden for
lessors. The alliance between Tax Partners and CBIZ was formed
to provide the market with easy access to outsourced solutions
to these difficult compliance problems. Gary DiLillo, National Director of CBIZ Property
Tax Solutions commented, "The coupling of our focused property
tax solutions expertise with Tax Partners' sales and use tax services
is a real win for lessors and capital funding companies." "This alignment of core competencies creates
a powerful mix of value and expertise for the leasing industry",
said John Richie, CEO of Tax Partners. CBIZ Property Tax Solutions is the leading provider
of outsourced property tax services to the Leasing Industry, and
has provided Lessors with cost effective solutions to their unique
needs for over eleven years. CBIZ works closely with Lessors to
integrate their services to improve cash flows and customer service
while lowering costs. CBIZ Property Tax Solutions is a subsidiary
of CBIZ (Century Business Services, Inc.), one of the largest
comprehensive professional business service outsourcing companies
in the United States. Tax Partners is the largest sales and use tax
compliance service firm in the U.S. The firm uses proprietary
technology and engineered processes to provide its clients with
outstanding sales tax compliance services. From the beginning
Tax Partners has focused on using its systems to provide clients
with higher levels of control, less risk and a more cost effective
compliance process than they can deliver from in-house approaches.
Tax Partners serves over 160 clients including well known leasing
companies like Textron Financial Corporation, HP Financial Services,
Ford Motor Credit, and GMAC. Sites of Reference: http://ptsleasing.com |
