Who Leases

Lessees vary widely from small one-person operations to Fortune 100 corporations. And the kinds of equipment being leased are just as diverse.

Transactions range from a few thousand dollars worth of equipment (such as fax machines) to multi-million dollar cogeneration facilities, telecommunications systems, medical equipment (including CAT scanners and MRI imaging), office systems, computers, commercial airliners, and transportation fleets. There is no end to the types of equipment that companies lease.

Of the $697 billion spent by business on productive assets in 2006, $216 billion, or 31 percent, was acquired by American businesses through leasing. The projected 2008 volume is $278 billion.