April of loan business, improve the quality of the credit

NEW YORK  - a key measure of U.S. business activity rose in April and credit quality improved as the economy slowly gathered steam, a group of lender, said Monday.

Companies native American of 5.1 billion in loans, leases and credit lines, April 10 more percent a year earlier, while 18% below March $ 6.2 billion, rental equipment and Finance Association (ELFA) said.

"We see a sustained recovery, albeit slow and some sectors are continuing to perform and some sectors are continue to underperform," ELFA Director-General to William Sutton said in an interview.

It is not uncommon to have a monthly dip in the first month of each quarter, said it.

Construction and trucking remain the main sectors of poor performance, according to ELFA.

"If you look at the cumulative data for the year to date, we still see a 27% increase over the same four months of last year," said Sutton.

The rebound comes off the coast of levels depressed a year earlier, he said, when companies were more reluctant to expand and buy new equipment.

ELFA represents lenders who finance half of the capital investment to the United States each year. The Group reports of economic activity for the equipment finance sector of $ 521 billion.

CREDIT ON THE MEND QUALITY

Charge-offs, which reflect the likely to be repaid, loan fell to 0.8 per cent in April from 1.3% in March and 1.6% in April 2010.

It was the lowest since before the recession, when charge-offs oscillated around 0.5% at the end of 2007, Sutton said.

ELFA said 3.3% of borrowers in April have been 30 days or later, a decrease of 3.5% in March. It was 9 per cent below a year earlier.

Approved lenders 76% of requests for credit capital spending in April, up from 75% in March.

ELFA may monthly confidence index dropped to 70.3 April 63.2, meanwhile, reflecting the uneven performance of the various sectors of activity.

"Some areas are still low, for example, construction and road transport, and they're not coming back as soon as everyone would like," reduces the level of trust, Sutton said.

Total workforce for equipment financing companies rose slightly after flat for five straight months and was up 1% on the year.