The Dig

Equipment financiers face exposure issues in key segments as pandemic-era risk management decisions continue to become portfolio problems.

While the pandemic-era supply shortages drove up used-equipment values, units financed at those higher values now represent delinquency and risk management issues, RJ Grimshaw, chief revenue officer at Orion First and former president and chief executive at UniFi Equipment Finance tells Equipment Finance News on this episode of “The Dig” podcast.

“Everyone’s portfolio performance over the last, [lets] call it five to seven years has been spectacular; better than historical average,” Grimshaw says. “Everyone was just focused on the origination aspect and how much capital can we deploy at a pace because that’s where it’s at.

But, he says, “They took their eye off the portfolio management aspects and risk mitigation part of the business, and, suddenly, they started exposing these issues because they weren’t focused on that.”

Grimshaw had a 27-year career in the equipment finance industry, including a decade at Unifi before joining Seattle-based Orion First in July, a full-service commercial loan and lease portfolio servicer.

Tune in to hear more about equipment finance people management, portfolio management, and risk management in the first episode of “The Dig,” formerly known as “Equipment Connect.”