From the Top
Supporting Small Businesses
By Cynthia L. Blankenship
Chairman, Independent Community Bankers of America
Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Bank of the West ,Irving, TX
I recently had the privilege to testify before Chairman John Kerry’s Senate Small Business Committee for a hearing on the “credit crunch.” It gave me a golden opportunity to speak for thousands of community banks nationwide and keep our perspective in front of Congress. I used the opportunity to explain why the Small Business Administration lending programs are so important for many community banks and Main Street.
As a community banker who uses the SBA 7(a) and 504 programs to help finance small businesses that otherwise would be denied access to capital to develop or grow their company, I had plenty to say.
The SBA programs helped Bank of the West, from its founding through today, to create a niche and serve the small business owner — a segment largely ignored by larger regional banks at the time. We knew our business customers and in many cases helped shape their business plans, but we also needed a vehicle to offset our risk and provide a loan on terms they could afford. The SBA program was that tool.
Once Bank of the West tapped into the SBA program, we set out to maximize its potential. We became the first SBA preferred lender in North Texas. Through the years we’ve continued to use the program to facilitate hundreds of SBA loans, build small businesses and create many jobs in our local communities.
I shared with Congress success stories about entrepreneurs like Kim Husband, a local salon owner in Irving, Texas, who received an SBA loan (which she paid off early). Her loan was used to purchase her business, which continues to thrive seven years later.
Today Kim Husband continues to be a good Bank of the West customer who uses a host of banking services, including remote deposit capture, which saves her time and us money. Now she is consulting with our community bank about a loan to renovate the salon, which today employs a staff of 20. How’s that for keeping the local economy growing?
My point is this — community bankers are relationship builders that serve our customers and communities in good times and in bad. I know there are hundreds of community banks out there successfully using the SBA loan programs to help their communities. That is why I spoke out against the recent sharp increases in SBA loan fees, reduced budget funding and increasing regulatory burdens that have decreased the SBA’s effectiveness when it is needed most.
Small businesses have created 70 percent of America’s new jobs during the last decade. What will happen to those small businesses and our economy if their funding opportunities dry up?
That’s a question we can’t afford to answer.
Your goal is to make a difference in the success of your small business customers. ICBA’s goal is to ensure the future of community banks.
Cynthia L. Blankenship is ICBA’s chairman and the vice chairman and chief operating officer of Bank of the West in Irving, Texas.