Union Bank named “Friendliest”
Union Bank has been designed by the US Small Business Administration as the “most small business friendly” bank in Vermont. This is the fourth consecutive year that Union Bank has received this distinction.
In the past four years, the Office of Advocacy of the US Small Business Administration has performed studies of lending by commercial banks to small businesses throughout the Nation. These studies sought to measure the amount and number of all types of loans (non-SBA as well as SBA) made to small businesses, and made a comparison of loan activity to the overall size of the banks involved. Banks with a high percentage of small business loans compared to their total asset size were deemed “small business friendly.” Union Bank has been rated the most “small business friendly” bank in the entire state of Vermont for all four years that the studies have been published.
“This ranking is a significant indication of the positive way we’re involved with small businesses in our communities, with traditional business loans and SBA guaranteed loans,” said Ken Gibbons, Union Bank President. “Since 1891, Union Bank has believed that small businesses are the foundation of a strong, growing economy. It’s an essential part of our philosophy to be the only real community bank in our area, and we are very pleased that for the fourth year in a row, the SBA has continued to recognize the efforts of our commercial lending team.”
Union Bank is one of only four banks in Vermont considered to be “small business friendly” by the SBA, and one of only six SBA preferred lender banks in Vermont. Preferred lenders are chosen from among the SBA’s best lenders and enjoy full delegation of lending authority from the SBA. This special SBA recognition allows Union Bank a fast-track, making small-business loan decisions locally, with full authorization from the SBA, thus speeding up the loan application process considerably.
Union Bank has headquarters in Morrisville, with branch offices in Stowe, Hardwick, Jeffersonville, Johnson, and Hyde Park and is a founding member of the VINA (Vermont Independent Network Affiliation) ATM network and a member of the FDIC.
For on-line information about Union Bank’s ranking, visit the US Small Business Administration’s site on the World Wide Web at http://www.sba.gov or visit the criteria used at http://www.sba.gov/ADVO/lending/bk_int97.html, or the ranking chart directly at http://www.sba.gov/ADVO/lending/vt.html.
Copyright Lake Iroquois Publishing, Inc. d/b/a Vermont Business Magazine Jun 01, 1998
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