Midwest equipment leasing veterans Spencer Richman and Richard Homan said they have launched a new division of American Financial Network. Bankers’ Equipment Leasing will provide Midwest community bankers the opportunity to offer equipment leasing to their commercial customer base. Homan will lead the division building on his successes at BB Community Leasing Services, AFN said.

Bankers Equipment Leasing will offer a full complement of equipment finance products to community banks that will in turn be offered to their clients, including vendor finance, municipal leasing, agriculture equipment/real estate fixture finance and all forms of commercial equipment finance. Lease structures will include true leases and loans and will be driven by the end user’s desired tax and financial objectives.

“We work directly with the commercial lenders to understand their client’s need and provide them with the correct product,” Homan said.

AFN said Bankers Equipment Leasing will provide a wide variety of options to community bankers to help them increase their loan portfolio and bottom line. They will be able to pick and choose their level of involvement on any given transaction depending on their level of risk tolerance, liquidity, capital level and yield requirements. Banks will be able to generate fees, loans or lease receivables on any given transaction and will have the flexibility to change their approach at any time, AFN explained.

“Community banks are exposed to significant competition in the equipment finance arena,” Homan said. He added that according to the Independent Community Bankers of America, community banks control approximately 21% of all U.S. banking assets and 58% of all loans to small business. “Despite this market acceptance for traditional bank loans/products, community banks control a negligible portion of all lease receivables. At the same time banks are also experiencing lack of loan demand, net interest margin squeeze and high levels of liquidity. Community banks have the demand and ability to fund these transactions. They simply need the expertise and platform from which to operate. We provide that platform without the fixed investment and overhead of establishing their own business unit,” Homan said.

Richman has owned AFN since 1988 and has developed a large syndication network and specialized underwriting approach that will allow Bankers Equipment Leasing to fund a wide range of transactions. “Size of transaction and client exposures should not matter when we evaluate the ability to fund a given lease,” Richman said.