The HELP Program is a lease financing option available to assist government entities with purchasing essential equipment.

The HELP Program offers many advantages, including competitive interest rates, eliminates the need to bid the financing (IC 5-1.5-8-3(c)), a streamlined one-page application and flexible repayment schedules.

The Indiana Bond Bank (IBB) is able to finance essential equipment for an entity, such as police cars, fire trucks, snow plows, dump trucks, computer equipment, and many other essential items. The IBB and the HELP program reserve the right not to finance non-essential items and fixtures. Please contact the IBB directly if you have questions.

No. For leases under $50,000 please contact the IBB directly.

Applications can be submitted at any time.

The lease providers in our program have asked for 7-10 business days to assemble their proposals.

There are twelve banks currently that work with the IBB to provide funding. Those banks include: BMO Harris Bank, Crossroads Bank, Fifth Third Bank, First Financial Bank, First Internet Bank, Huntington Bank, JP Morgan, Key Bank, Peoples State Bank, PNC Bank, Regions Bank and US Bank.

No. If you are not satisfied with the rate provided or are able to locate a lower rate outside of the HELP Program, we recommend you use the lower rate.

Once the rate is accepted, you will work directly with the financing bank. The IBB will be available to provide assistance throughout the process. Please note, that your governing body will need to adopt the paperwork provided by the financing bank prior to closing on the lease.

The lease provider will need to pay your vendor for the equipment, unless your governing body has adopted a reimbursement resolution. Please contact the IBB for additional details.

The HELP Program is a lease purchase program. Your entity will own the equipment once the lease has been paid in full.

Equipment can only be leased for the useful life of the equipment. However, some of our providers will not provide lease terms beyond 10 years. Please contact the IBB directly if you have questions regarding a term of longer than 8 years.

This varies between providers, but rates are typically held by the provider for a reasonable period of time. If there is more than the anticipated closing of 3 months from the application, please contact the IBB regarding setting up an escrow.

Typically, our providers will require a payment within one year of closing. Please contact the Bond Bank directly if you would like to make your first lease payment more than a year after closing.

No, you will not need bond counsel for a HELP lese. You will need to have local counsel provide an opinion on the lease documents at closing. Please note the next question if paying your lease from a debt service fund.

Typically, lease payments are not made from debt service funds. If you would like to make your lease payment using a debt service fund, you may want to contact your local counsel or bond counsel. It is up to the entity to set up the debt service fund if that is the source of repayment of the equipment lease.