The 2016 funding environment looked and felt much like the one before it. Liquidity hung thick as a storm cloud, darkening the landscape and pelting the best deals with a shower of bids. “On the buy side, it was a tough year,” says Sera Oliver, Vice President, Capital Markets, for Key Equipment Finance in Albany. “Rates were low and the deals weren’t there, part-ly because competition was up, but also because [equipment-finance] companies were retaining a lot of business to grow their own portfolios.” Anthony Sasso, President of TD Equipment Finance, a Cherry Hill, N.J.-based subsidiary of TD Bank of Toronto, had similar observa-tions. “What I saw in 2016 was an abundance of liquidity in the U.S. finance market, with the economy experiencing slow-growth sta-tus,” he says, adding, “Most of us experienced margin compression, because there was more supply than demand. It was a common theme last year, and I see it going into this year, too— an ample amount of liquidity through a varie-ty of funding sources.” The slow-growth, low-interest-rate environ-ment has kept many funding sources on edge for several years now. Under pressure from par-ent companies, stockholders, low interest rates and lean margins, these sources are looking to put their money to work in funded assets that will produce solid returns. As challenging as that goal seems, some funding executives ex-press hope and optimism for 2017. 16 MARCH/APRIL 2017 EQUIPMENT LEASING & FINANCE MAGAZINE RICH VINTAGE/ ISTOCK