One of the events of this year that we should remember is the retirement of Leonard Machlis after 38 years as the executive director of the Commercial Finance Association.
The CFA is the trade association of the asset-based lending industry -- the people who do factoring and receivables financing to provide credit for those who cannot get direct bank loans without this collateral.
Most community banks do not have anything to do with these financiers -- until they worry about the credit quality of a loan request from a good customer, or when they are retrenching in a down economy. Then they send the potential borrower to an asset-based lender to avoid the credit risk while keeping a good customer happy. This helps explain why asset-based lending has risen from about $120 billion in 1994 to over $314 billion now.
