Swapalease.com reported on Wednesday that the approval rate for vehicle lease transfers improved in March both on a year-over-year and month-over-month basis.

The site indicated credit applicants registered a 75.0 percent approval rate for March, up by 3.8 percent versus February, which had a 72.2 percent approval rate. A year ago, the approvals rate came 66.7 percent.

Despite rising incentives and an increase in the number of lease returns to dealerships, Swapalease.com pointed out dealers continue to push lease deals for consumers. The most recent lease outlook from RVI Group said the firm expects lease penetration to remain near all-time-high levels.

Meanwhile, Swapalease also mentioned 2017 is already showing higher lease credit approval rates than 2016. Data from the past three years shows that the beginning of the year tends to have a slightly lower approval rate, but so far 2017 has not followed suit, with two straight months above 70 percent on approvals.

“After 2016, which saw an increase in the number of overall applicants, as well as a higher number of non-approvals, it’s good to see 2017 begin to see higher approval rates," said Scot Hall, executive vice president of Swapalease.com.

“We’ll have to see how the next few months come together, but we’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll see this rate of higher approvals continue,” Hall added.