Leasing has steadily increased its importance since it emerged in Germany at the beginning of the sixties of the last century. Meanwhile leasing has outreached loan financing as a source of external financing. A new business volume of almost 75 billion Euros makes leasing an essential part of almost each firm´s financial package.

In sharp contrast with the economic importance of leasing is its attention in the academic world. This was decisive for representatives of the leasingindustry to foster the foundation of a research institute. With the permission of the federal government, the Research Institute for Leasing was established as an affiliated institution at the University of Cologne.

Key Topics

The Research Institute for Leasing focuses on both, on basic research and on applied research. An example for basic research is the foundation of leasing in neo-institutional economics, subjects of applied research comprise accounting, credit risk management, fraud, and regulation.

Cooperation and Networking

The research institute for leasing is funded by a sponsoring society. As an independent and academic institution the research institute is commissioned to study all aspects of leasing in order to deepen the knowledge about leasing in the academic world and to support the development of leasing in the business world. The Research Institute for Leasing closely cooperates with lessors as well as with the national and European leasing association.

Today's ideas. Tomorrow's impact.

The Research Institute for Leasing organizes each year a symposium about current issues of the leasing industry. Last year´s symposium was about the impact of leasing for sustainability and sharing economy.

The symposium addresses an issue that will be a focal research project for the next years: Leasing is based on the idea that using an asset is more important than owning an asset. This is identical to the basic concept of the sharing economy. Moreover, leasing can contribute to sustainability because one of lessors´ core competencies is finding opportunities for redeploying used assets. Until now, leasing contracts only rarely make use of the potential for promoting sustainability and sharing economy. A fundamental question of future research will be to investigate how leasing arrangements have to be adjusted to meet the challenges of a sustainable economy.