This month’s edition looks at OneSavings Bank’s experience in managing an insolvent third-party piano leasing business on its books. The information we’ve put together comes mainly from the administrator’s filing with Companies House earlier this year, but we've also talked to some industry figures to offer some context about the write-off amount and to present a snapshot of OSB Group’s 2020 financial year, which looks solid and over-provisioned going into the second half of 2021.
Our feature entitled The man behind the machine is an edited transcript of a keynote talk by Blaise Thomson, a pioneer in the field of speech-recognition technology and human-machine conversation. Thomson briefly discusses his career and how he came to work in asset finance. He also poses some big questions for professionals in the sector about the future role of big tech in asset finance.
Our country focus looks at Italy, where lessors are feeling upbeat about coming out of lockdown thanks to the success of government schemes to support businesses hit by Covid.
A Q&A with Diane Croessmann of The Alta Group looks at equipment leasing pay-per-use, which she says is best understood as a work in progress, a business model that is still growing and finding its place in the market.
A feature by Q2, which took part in our Leasing Life Roundtable Forum online event in May (as did Blaise Thomson), is about debt collection in the age of Covid, which is timely given the slowdown in coming out of lockdown that we’re experiencing in the UK. We’ve provided an edited version of Q2’s executive summary on the topic.
Lastly, our Analysis section looks at the circular economy, and diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Alejandro Gonzalez, Editor