The role leasing can play in boosting the European economy was at the heart of discussions at the Leaseurope Annual Convention in Rome.
From the opening remarks on 10 October by Massimiliano Moi, chairman of Leaseurope, to the final panel of chief executives pitching the benefits of leasing on 11 October, the ideas behind Leaseurope’s Leasing for Growth strategy featured throughout.
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Moi officially launched the Leasing for Growth programme, which will include promotional material for Leaseurope’s member organisations and lessors to help pitch the unique benefits of leasing to potential customers and regulators, with a video explaining how leasing works and its positive impact on economic growth.
The former UniCredit Leasing chief executive also outlined why leasing should be the finance product of choice for European SMEs and said the industry needed to talk up its benefits if it is to achieve Leaseurope’s target of 30% penetration rate of fixed capital investment.
Leasing advantages
Following Moi, representatives of the leasing industry’s partners and clients took part in a panel discussion chaired by John Bennett of JB Associates and explained the advantages of leasing to their businesses.
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By GlobalDataGerhard Huemer, director of fiscal policy at UEAPME, the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, explained how his members valued the cash-flow management and service packages offered by leasing products. Two fleet end-users, Ivo Hyky of Siemens Czech Republic and Ralph Ruckgaber of IBM, said their firms valued the asset management services which fleet lessors could provide.
Asset management and services was also an important part of the leasing product offering for vendor partners with Edward Hetherington, president of Doosan Infracore Financial Solutions, explaining how partnering with finance companies helps his firm to retain customers and develop long-term relationships.
Regulation and sales pitches
The benefits of leasing in light of regulatory changes was the topic for the first session of day two with Patrina Buchanan of the International Accounting Standards Board giving an overview of the proposed leasing accounting changes, Hervé Phaure of Deloitte explaining the findings of the joint Deloitte and Leaseurope report into the industry’s risk profile and Christian Roelofs of Grant Thornton discussing the impact of these changes on leasing stakeholders and investors.
The event closed with three chief executives, Marie-Christine Ducholet of Societe Generale Equipment Finance, Jürgen Mossakowski of CHG-Meridian and Jukka Salonen of Nordea Finance, competing to give the best pitch on a series of topics with the audience able to vote for the best presentation.
The first pitch was on how to attract young talent to the industry, the second was to investors and the third was to end-user customers. All three business heads then offered their view on the future of the industry and echoed Moi’s presentation on how the industry must emphasise how it can help European businesses and the economy grow as well as achieving its own growth.
