ELFA Magazine – Summer 2025 – A commentary from Eric Miller, Ansley Park Capital’s President and Chief Executive Officer, appeared in the cover story of the summer issue of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s magazine, “The Rise of the Independents: Private Capital Gains Ground,” authored by Marcia Doyle.  

[…] Back to the future?

But private capital is hardly a shiny new object in this industry, maintains Eric Miller, President and CEO, Ansley Park Capital. “I think it’s more about the re-emergence of non-bank financing rather than the rise of private credit,” he says, noting that pre-2008, non-bank lenders such as GE Capital, CIT, Transamerica, etc., dominated the market.

Post financial crisis, the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing flooded banks with deposits, prompting their expansion into equipment financing, where they eventually captured more than 70% of new business volume.

Now the pendulum is swinging back. ELFA’s 2024 Survey of Equipment Finance Activity shows that in just one year the banking sector’s share of new business volume dropped from 63% to 56.8%, while independents surged from 7.3% to 12.7%.

“There’s typically an asset liability mismatch on banks’ balance sheets, with short-term deposits trying to fund long-term assets,” Fate says. “The regulated piece of this industry is going to keep shrinking, and the independent piece will keep growing.”

Miller believes the cycle now favors independents and outside investors. “The term ‘private credit’ is in vogue and so everyone wants to latch on to it,” he says. Ares Management’s Alternative Credit Funds investment into Ansley Park Capital generated significant industry attention, and “investment in our industry from such a prominent asset manager should give great confidence to the industry.” […]

Read the story at https://www.elfaonline.org/news-and-publications/magazine/issue/article/july-aug-sept-2025/the-rise-of-the-independents–private-capital-gains-ground