Monitor's Podcast+

Most lenders didn't choose disconnected systems. They inherited them. In this episode of the Monitor podcast, Rita Garwood, editor in chief of Monitor and ABF Journal, talks with Brian Koprowski, president and general manager of DataScan by Solifi, about why credit, servicing, audit and risk systems stayed siloed, what lenders miss between 30-, 60- and 90-day floor plan audits, and how a connected data layer can move risk management from reactive to predictive.Koprowski shares results of a retail data test covering about 1.5 million VINs, which found that 17% to 18% of units were paid off after the five-day grace period, representing roughly $6 billion to $8 billion in collateral. He also explains why lenders that can't replace everything at once should "connect and improve" instead of "rip and replace."In this episode:Why disconnected systems are an evolution, not bad planningThe cultural shift from calendar-based audits to event-based risk managementWhat happens at the dealership between physical auditsHow continuous monitoring pieces together retail sales, DMS, OEM and GPS dataWhat EVs and connected-car data mean for floor plan riskWhat examiners want to see from lendersWhy equipment lenders are adding floor planWhere to start when you can't replace everything at onceThis episode is sponsored by Solifi. Behind every lending decision is a network of people, processes and information, and the Solifi Open Finance Platform brings data and workflows together from origination through servicing and portfolio management. Learn more: https://www.solifi.com/

What's the one question every contractor should ask their lender, and almost never does? For Tom Reilly, division president of construction equipment finance at 1st Source Bank, it's simple: what happens in the bad times?In this episode, Monitor Editor-in-Chief Rita Garwood talks with Reilly about the relationship-first philosophy that's shaped his 35 years in the industry, why his team refuses to call financing a ‘deal,’ and what it takes to keep a contractor's equipment, and business, running through the slow seasons.They discuss:• Why “bleeding yellow” became personal, and what it taught him about the construction industry• How growing up in operations shapes the way he underwrites deals today• What's driving equipment costs, from a $10,000 Caterpillar D8 in 1935 to nearly $1 million now• The difference between a same-day funding and a deal that takes weeks• What contractors get wrong about matching loan terms to job length• The one question every contractor should ask their lender before a big purchase#ConstructionEquipment #EquipmentFinance #ConstructionIndustry #MonitorPodcast

Lenders and lessors are eager to put AI to work, but should you use an agent from your system of record vendor, bring in a third-party specialist or build your own in house?In this episode of the Monitor Podcast, Monitor Editor in Chief Rita Garwood talks with Kristian Dolan, CEO of Northteq, about how to make that call, why a weekend build is only the first 80%, what the ongoing costs of in-house agents look like and how to treat AI agents like employees when they touch your core systems.In this episode:• Where AI adoption in equipment finance stands today• The three options: system of record, third-party and build-your-own agents• Who should be involved in the decision• Why specialists make sense for fraud and know-your-business checks• The "80/20 trap" and the hidden costs of maintaining your own agents• Access controls, human review and audit trails for AI agents• What to ask your software vendors about MCP and API access

Every headline seems to have an AI angle, but what does that mean for middle market borrowers who aren't building data centers?In this episode of the ABF Journal / Monitor Podcast, Rita Garwood, editor in chief of ABF Journal and monitordaily.com, talks with Mike Semanco, president and COO of Business Finance at Mitsubishi HC Capital America. Semanco explains why an asset-based lender still starts with collateral, how the Great Recession and the rush into electric vehicles shaped his credit thinking, and why he believes companies that use AI as a tool are better positioned than those that pivot entirely.In this conversation:• Where capital is flowing and how much is tied to AI and data centers• Why collateral comes first and cash flow second in ABL underwriting• The metrics that matter most now, from free cash flow to EBITDA add-backs• How Mitsubishi HC Capital kept lending to manufacturers during the Great Recession• Warning signs in the EV pivot and why the lender passed on some deals• Where the AI cycle echoes the EV story, and where it doesn't• What borrowers without an AI story should do now

Solifi has made its third acquisition in 14 months, acquiring Inovatec and adding retail automotive and power sports loan origination technology to its secured finance platform.In this episode, Monitor Editor-in-Chief Rita Garwood sits down with Solifi CEO Dan Corazzi and Inovatec co-founder Vladimir Kovacevic to talk about why the deal made sense, how the companies plan to integrate their technology and teams, and what's next for customers on both sides.Topics covered in this episode:— The product and geography gap that made Inovatec the right acquisition target— How Solifi's private equity partner, TA, shaped the deal— The plan for integrating Inovatec's Propel platform with Solifi's existing tools— What changes — and what doesn't — for customers on both sides— The future of Inovatec's Vancouver and Serbia offices— Where AI creates new opportunities across the combined platform— What success looks like 12 months from now

Access to capital in fleet lending is no longer decided by asset values, revenue growth or market share alone. On this episode of the Monitor podcast, Kirk Browning, division president of vehicle fleet financing at 1st Source Bank, joins editor in chief Rita Garwood to explain why financial transparency has become a competitive advantage for fleet operators — and what it takes to get there.In this episode, Kirk discusses:Why financial reporting quality can outweigh size or growth rate in winning better lending termsHow the FASB's ASC 842 standard reshaped underwriting for fleet-heavy businessesThe real difference between a compilation, a review and an audit — and what each one signals to lendersWhen a growing fleet operator should move up to the next level of financial reportingWhy Kirk encourages operators to treat financial reporting as a business asset, not just a compliance requirement

Why does one broker always seem to get the exception, while another can't catch a break? According to Jim Noel, VP of Partner Originations at Brightcap Financial, it comes down to trust — and trust is built long before the exception request ever comes in.In this episode, Monitor Editor-in-Chief Rita Garwood talks with Noel about where friction actually creeps into the deal process, why speed of service so often decides who wins a deal, and how AI is changing everything from application intake to fraud prevention.They discuss:Where friction really comes from on both the broker and funder sideWhy the fastest brokers and funders tend to win the dealHow to communicate with brokers the way they actually want to be reached What AI is already doing for underwriting, fraud prevention, and trainingWhat separates a real partnership from a purely transactional relationship Brightcap's long-term vision for funding a deal in fifteen minutes

“Rip and replace” isn’t the only path to modernization — and for many equipment finance organizations, it isn’t even the right one.In this episode, Monitor Editor-in-Chief Rita Garwood talks with Campbell Clout, Managing Director, GTM, North America and APMEA at Odessa, about what real modernization looks like when you skip the all-or-nothing approach.They discuss:• Why vendors are now expected to bring a playbook instead of a blank slate• The real cost, risk, and ROI benefits of an MVP-first approach• How one client scaled a device-as-a-service business from a single market to 32 countries in two years• The honest trade-offs between big-bang and phased implementations• Where AI is delivering real, immediate value today — and where it's still mostly hype

Most people buy jets backward. They fall in love with an aircraft first, then spend years trying to justify the purchase. In this episode of the Monitor podcast, host Rita Garwood sits down with Chris Lee, President of the Aircraft and Specialty Finance Deposit Divisions at 1st Source Bank, to talk about how to flip that order — starting with the mission, not the machine.Chris has been a pilot, an aircraft salesman, a financier, and an owner, so he's seen this decision from every seat at the table. In this conversation, he breaks down the mission-first framework from his article "How Not to Buy a Jet," walks through the Warren Buffett story that inspired it — including why Buffett once called his own plane "The Indefensible" before renaming it "The Indispensable" — and explains when charter, fractional ownership, or renting might actually be the smarter move.In this episode:• Chris's path through nearly every corner of the aviation industry• The mission-first framework for aircraft acquisition• The Warren Buffett story, and the risk of misreading it• How to put a real dollar value on your own time• When NOT to buy a jet — charter, fractional, and rental alternatives• How mission clarity changes the financing conversation• Chris's one question every prospective buyer should ask before they start shopping

What does building autonomous vehicles at Cruise and dispatch systems at Uber have to do with underwriting a $50,000 equipment finance deal? More than you'd think. In this episode, Monitor Editor-in-Chief Rita Garwood talks with Utsav, Founder and CEO of Kaaj, about why the economics of underwriting small and mid-ticket deals have been broken for years, where the hours actually go between an application landing and a credit decision, and how AI can take over the repetitive "science" of a deal so underwriters can focus on the art — relationship-building, deal structuring, and judgment. They discuss:• What building AI systems at massive scale taught Utsav about deploying technology where mistakes have real consequences• The gap between shortening turnaround time and rushing credit judgment• How to tell a genuinely scalable AI system apart from an impressive demo• What data lenders should insist on owning when working with AI vendors• The smallest credible AI pilot a lender can run — and how to measure if it worked• What a high-performing credit operation looks like three to five years from now