ATION SURVEY Equipment Leasing & Fin Rise the Industry Compensation on by C ● ● ● ● Increases in compensation have tracked industry growth over the past few years OMPENSATION IN T HE EQUIPMEN T FIN A NCE INDUS T RY INCRE ASED MODES T LY IN 2 014, according to the 2015 Equipment Leasing and Finance Compensation Survey from ELFA and McLagan. For the fifth consecutive year, a year-over-year increase in new business volume contributed to increases in compensation. The survey measures compensation rates for the 2014 fiscal year as reported by more than 70 equipment finance companies representing a cross section of the equipment finance sector, including independent, bank and captive leasing and finance companies. Firms provide data for more than 90 executive, front-office and support positions, including a breakdown of salary, incentives (including cash bonuses and commissions), long-term awards and total compensation by company type. Highlights include: TOTAL COMPENSATION: From 2013 to 2014, compensa-2015 Equipment Leasing & Finance COMPENSATION SURVEY Sponsored by tion rose 3% for key origination functions and 2% for in-frastructure functions (middle-and back-office staff directly supporting the equipment leasing and finance sector). Com-pensation increases tended to be larger at the senior producer level (direct origination, vendor). SALARY: Salary budgets remained very tight across financial services, including the equipment leasing and finance sector. Across the sector, salaries increased by only 2.8% with larger increases granted to infrastructure staff vs. originators. The increases in compensation have tracked industry growth over the past few years. As new business volume has grown, so has compensation. For more information or to or-der your copy of the report, please visit www.elfaonline.org/ Data/?fa=Studies#COMP . n ● ● DIFFERENCES BY FIRM TYPE: Generally, banks awarded higher levels of compensation relative to captive and inde-pendents. At more junior levels in infrastructure and origi-nation roles, however, total compensation and salary rates tended to be comparable (+/-5%). ● ● LONG-TERM AWARD ELIGIBILITY: The majority of firms in the study had long-term award programs (e.g., restricted stock, deferred cash) in addition to annual cash incentives. On a firm-by-firm basis, ~70% of banks paid long-term incentives, significantly higher than ~60% of captives and ~30% of inde-pendent firms. Don’t miss the session “2015 Equipment Leasing and Finance Compensation Survey Highlights” at the 2015 ELFA Annual Convention. Learn more at www.elfaonline.org/AC . 48 OCTOBER 2015 EQUIPMENT LEASING & FINANCE MAGAZINE