Equipment finance origination has run for decades on a durable asset that appears on no balance sheet: the relationship. Careers were built on it, platforms were priced on it, and the industry’s recruiting logic still assumes it — the originator’s book travels with the originator, and the book is the business. Like most industry assumptions, it was true when it formed. The data now says it is depreciating, and faster than most of the people holding the asset want to examine.

The depreciation is not about loyalty or character. It is structural: the way businesses buy financing has changed underneath the relationship model, and the change is measurable. Buying decisions that were made by an owner over a long lunch are increasingly made by committees over a procurement process. The relationship still matters — it decides who gets into the process. It just no longer decides who wins it.