Leading through uncertainty: resilience, risk appetite and realism

At the Finance Connect Leaders’ Summit Europe 2026, the “Leading through uncertainty” session brought together a panel of senior practitioners from across captive and bank-owned leasing to address a question facing every lender and manufacturer in today’s market: how do you keep supporting customers when volatility feels constant?

Moderated by Finance Connect’s equipment finance community leader John Rees, the discussion stayed close to operational reality. Rather than dwelling on geopolitics itself, the panel focused on what leaders in equipment finance can control: risk appetite, customer support, product flexibility, regulatory response, sustainability pathways and the measured adoption of AI. The result was a session defined less by alarm than by resilience.

Uncertainty is no longer the exception

A clear theme emerged from the outset: volatility is not a temporary disruption but part of the operating environment.

Forecasting may be harder, he said, but the fundamentals are not uniformly bleak: unemployment in Europe remains relatively low, growth persists, and inflation has eased from recent peaks. His message was pragmatic – leaders cannot control the wider world, but they can concentrate on understanding the main trends and executing accordingly.

That view was echoed by Zdenek Metelak, deputy CEO of BPCE Equipment Solutions, who pointed to the fact that many banks and leasing businesses have continued to produce strong financial results despite the turbulence. For him, that is evidence that the sector is already adapting to a “new normal”.

Roland Meyer of DLL took the point further, framing leadership itself as part of the answer. In uncertain times, he said, finance providers should aim to be “the stability in the uncertainty” for customers, employees and partners alike. That means not withdrawing from the market but leaning into the industry’s role as a source of continuity.

Lending through volatility requires flexibility and asset expertise

If the mood was resilient, it was not complacent. Panellists were clear that leading through uncertainty requires sharper underwriting, greater flexibility and a deep understanding of assets.

In his view, flexibility is becoming increasingly important for customers, especially in volatile sectors. He pointed to the growing use of break clauses in contracts, allowing customers to terminate early under clearly defined circumstances. In some markets, he said, these structures now feature in a substantial share of agreements.

That kind of flexibility is not simply a concession to customers; it is also a retention tool and a competitive differentiator. Köhne’s examples illustrated how equipment finance is moving beyond the traditional fixed-term model toward more responsive structures that reflect how customers actually operate.

Björn van den Berg, global director of Sandvik Financial Services, reinforced the importance of asset knowledge from the captive perspective. In sectors such as mining, where assets can be highly specialised and physically difficult to redeploy, the manufacturer-backed financier has an edge because it understands the equipment, the secondary markets and the operational context. That expertise can make more flexible structures viable in situations where a general lender would be less comfortable.

For bank-owned lessors, the same logic applies in a different form. Metelak noted that innovative, tailored structures are often a better route to differentiation than simply competing on margin. In an uncertain environment, value-added finance propositions matter more.

Regulation: accepted, but not without frustration

The session also examined one of the sector’s enduring tensions: regulation.

There was broad recognition that financial regulation contributes to the overall stability of the industry, particularly for bank-owned players. At the same time, panellists made clear that the burden is significant, unevenly applied and often difficult to reconcile with the actual risk profile of leasing.

Layan highlighted the complexity created by divergent regulatory approaches across European markets, even within the same broad framework. For larger cross-border players, managing that complexity can become part of the value proposition, but it still imposes cost and friction. His sharper concern was capital treatment: in his view, the amount of equity required in regulated leasing does not always reflect the underlying risk of the business.

For captives, the picture looked different. Both van den Berg and Köhne described businesses that have deliberately remained outside full banking-style regulation, partly to avoid unnecessary burden and partly because their business models do not require it. Van den Berg noted that some captives now see regulation less as an advantage than as a cost, unless it unlocks funding options such as access to deposits.

The mood on regulation, then, was neither anti-regulatory nor enthusiastic. It was more a case of acceptance paired with a clear desire for proportionality.

Sustainability is advancing, but economics still matter

The sustainability discussion was one of the most nuanced parts of the session.

On electric vehicles, the panel recognised the tension between environmental necessity and commercial reality. Moderator John Rees referenced the idea that demand for EVs is often supported more by incentives than by organic market pull, and the room largely agreed that pricing, residual value confidence and infrastructure remain major constraints.

Köhne argued that in auto, the central issue is less ideology than economics, especially residual value reliability and access to charging. Yet in equipment and industrial settings, sustainability can be far more embedded in customer decision-making. In many tenders, he said, sustainability criteria now carry significant weight, to the point where businesses can lose out commercially if their operations appear outdated.

The challenge is not whether electrification makes sense in principle, but whether customers can absorb the upfront investment, especially in new projects.

Roland Meyer added a broader challenge to the debate, suggesting that too often the market frames the transition in simplistic “electric versus not” terms. In his view, the industry also needs to rethink usage models, mobility habits and lifecycle thinking, rather than assuming that swapping one powertrain for another is enough.

Pascal Layan pushed back against excessive cynicism, insisting that the transition remains a necessity. He pointed to visible improvements in urban air quality in China as evidence that the shift can have real-world benefits.

What emerged was a realistic position: the direction of travel is clear, but the route will differ by asset class, infrastructure readiness and customer economics.

AI is useful, but only where it solves real problems

When the discussion turned to artificial intelligence, the tone again was practical.

Köhne offered perhaps the most memorable framing, suggesting that people should mentally replace the word “AI” with “blockchain” from time to time as a reality check. His point was not that AI is empty hype – quite the opposite – but that leaders should be disciplined about where it genuinely adds value. At KION, he said, AI is being used to increase individual capability, particularly in areas such as technical manuals, service procedures and aspects of credit understanding, rather than to cut headcount.

Across the panel, the same pattern appeared. Meyer spoke about AI as a “second opinion” tool, useful when applied to clear operational tasks rather than for its own sake. He noted that simply using it to draft emails may not save much time if every output still requires careful review, whereas applying it to document extraction, translation or legacy-system workflows can produce more tangible results.

Van den Berg highlighted legal due diligence as an especially effective use case, particularly in the early stages of assessing new markets. AI can accelerate the initial review, provided users verify sources carefully. Metelak said his business sees many possible applications, from credit analysis to KYC and asset management, but stressed that AI should remain “a good servant and not a bad master”.

Layan perhaps captured the balance best: the technology is already having a meaningful impact on employees’ daily work, and it has the potential both to reduce costs and improve service quality. But where AI requires too much control and validation, some of the efficiency gains disappear. The revolution may be coming, but it will still have to prove itself use case by use case.

Fraud, defaults and discipline

In the closing section, the panel addressed risk appetite, default and fraud.

There was no sense of panic, but there was a clear acknowledgment that fraud has become a hotter topic. Layan warned that as more sales move through telesales and e-commerce channels, and as counterparties are less frequently met in person, the exposure increases. Dealers under pressure can also create new vulnerabilities.

Others were more measured. Metelak said his business had not seen major deterioration over the past five years, with the biggest recurring issues involving double financing or financing of non-existent assets rather than a dramatic change in the overall trend. Van den Berg pointed to sanctions circumvention and KYC as major concerns in international asset-heavy sectors, while Meyer stressed the value of telematics and GPS in recovering assets before they disappear across borders.

Köhne’s view was that in long-term built-to-order finance, fraud is relatively limited because the customer and asset are well understood. The greater exposure sits in short-term rental, where processes matter enormously. In his telling, many fraud cases remain preventable if frontline teams follow established procedures.

A confident, if sober, conclusion

If the session had a single takeaway, it was that uncertainty is not paralysing this market. Far from retreating, the panel projected confidence that equipment and asset finance will continue to fund SMEs, corporates and strategic investment through whatever comes next.

That confidence was not based on wishful thinking. It rested on practical levers: disciplined underwriting, deep asset knowledge, contract flexibility, selective innovation, realistic sustainability pathways and a willingness to keep lending when customers still need support.

For an audience looking for certainty, the panel could not offer it. But it did offer something more useful: a clear sense that leadership in this market means staying steady, staying commercial and continuing to move forward even when the wider environment refuses to stand still.