Lease Finance

NAME OF ORGANISATION
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

OVERVIEW
This collection is a monthly collection of Lease Finance commitments by Australian-resident lending institutions. Lease Finance refers to the leasing or hiring of assets under an agreement which transfers all the risk and benefit of ownership of the asset to the lessee, without transferring legal ownership of the asset. The survey also requests information on Operating Lease finance, which is a lease whereby the benefits and risks of ownership of the asset are kept by the lessor.

The collection results are released monthly in Lending Finance, Australia (ABS Cat No 5671.0) and are also accessible through AusStats (the ABS subscriber service). More detailed state, lender type and purpose of loan estimates may be available on a fee-for-service basis on request.

PURPOSE
The value of commitments for Lease Finance is considered to be a leading indicator of business investment expenditure (capital expenditure) and as an indicator of the confidence of the corporate sector in the prospects for the economy. These statistics are used for analytical purposes within the ABS and by financial institutions, the Reserve Bank of Australia, governments, policy advisers, industry bodies, researchers and economists.

SCOPE
The survey population is all Australian-resident lending institutions.

The survey frame which seeks to cover the survey population comprises all banks authorised under the Banking Act of 1959, permanent building societies and credit unions, all lending institutions bound by the Financial Corporations Act (FCA) of 1974, and is supplemented by other known significant lending institutions such as insurance companies and superannuation funds, general government enterprises, securitisation vehicles, and institutions subject to state government regulation.

The frame coverage is conceptually good for banks, building societies, credit unions, and financial institutions subject to the FCA, where we are informed by the Reserve Bank of any additions to the frame. For securitisation vehicles, we use the frame for the securitisation collection conducted in financial accounts section, and for the remaining lending institutions where no definitive lists exist, we rely on the success of media scans and other sources to maintain frame coverage.

All banks are included in the sample of lenders for the Lease Finance statistics. For other lenders, the largest lenders to businesses and individuals for total lease finance are included so that, together with banks, at least 95% of total Australian Lease Finance commitments are covered, and at least 90% of each State total is covered. In addition, lenders are included in the sample so that at least 70% of total Lease Finance commitments by General Financiers, Finance Companies, and Other Lenders are covered by the sample of lenders.

An annual collection is conducted to maintain and update the survey coverage. New lenders are included as their lending for Lease Finance becomes sufficiently large.

The sample selected in June 2002 for the 2002-03 year is the final sample to be selected using the method described above. In future years, sample selection will use asset information collected by APRA. See for details of the proposed new sample selection method.



DATA DETAIL

Conceptual framework
The Lease Finance collection measures the value of commitments made during the reference period by lending institutions to individuals, corporations and other entities to provide finance for the leasing of tangible assets.

A finance commitment is a firm offer to provide finance which has been accepted by the client. For a commitment to finance, a contract to provide finance between lessor (lender) and lessee (borrower) should have been signed or be about to be signed. Commitments are published by lessor (lender) according to the type of finance insitution of the entity specified on the finance contract.

Lending institutions included are banks, permanent building societies, credit unions, life or general insurance companies, general government enterprises, superannuation schemes, corporations registered under the Financial Corporations Act 1974 (including Finance Companies and General Financiers.

Main outputs

1. Value of commitments to provide lease finance.
2. Value of commitments to provide operating lease finance

Other concepts (summary)


GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL
Australia
New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
South Australia
Western Australia
Tasmania
Northern Territory
ACT

Comments and/or Other Regions
Estimates for smaller states are more likely to be suppressed for breaches of ABS rules on the release of information which may identify an individual provider.

COLLECTION FREQUENCY
Monthly

Frequency comments


COLLECTION HISTORY

• The collection began collecting monthly lease finance in January 1985, although the loan purposes were less detailed.
• More detailed loan purpose breakdowns of lease finance (relating to cars and trucks) were added at the time of a forms re-design in 1991, and are published from July 1991. Operating Lease statistics were collected from July 1991, in an identical format to lease finance statistics.
• Lease Finance as separate publication (ABS Cat No 5644.0) was discontinued in July 1993, and has since been published in the compendium publication Lending Finance, Australia (ABS Cat No 5671.0).
• From June 2000, all estimates for Lender Types within States were no longer published, and Industry of Borrower estimates within States were also discontinued. State estimates (for all lenders) and Lender Type and Industry estimates (for Australia) continue to be published.
• From October 2001, significant modifications were made to the Ausstats tables for Lease Finance, reducing the level of detail provided in the State and Lender Type tables. For Australia level tables, Lease Finance commitments for the purchase of trailers, and for the purchase of buses were no longer separately identified within Motor Vehicle finance.
• From July 2002, all information was collected by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) for all banks and those in-sample building societies and credit unions, and then passed to the ABS.