Small businesses find themselves a bigger focus at banks

CNY Business Journal (1996+), May 18, 2001 by Dickinson, Casey J

UTICA - M&T Bank is expanding its Business Banking Centers. The bank opened one of its small-business oriented branches here during April, because of a growing need for commercial services in the area.

"Our sense is that 'it was an underserved market," says Lee DeAmicis, M&T vice president and manager of business banking.

The move fits with a decade-old trend that finds Central New York bank facilities focusing more on smallbusiness customers.

Located in a former Metropolitan Life office at 2 Business Park Court, the M&T BBC is its second Oneida County branch. The bank has had a presence in the region for years through its Rome office.

The BBC is a full-service branch with an emphasis on the needs of business customers. The office provides commercial lending, mid-market services, and health-care lending. M&T representatives from other branches use the BBC as their base in the Utica area, supporting its staff of five. The BBC, says DeAmicis, is structured more as a sales office than a typical bank branch.

Clients can access their personal accounts at the BBC, as well as their business accounts.

"Our target customers are businesses and their owners," says DeAmicis.

The Utica office is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the week. After closing time, and on weekends, a secured vestibule allows customers to access their account via ATM and to make night deposits as well.

M&T first introduced its BBC concept in the Hudson Valley about four years ago, says DeAmicis. The bank may open a Business Banking Center in the Watertown area in the future, he adds. M&T has identified Watertown as another underserved market that could support a business banking center.

Small-business banking customers have received more attention in the past decade. At Chase Manhattan Bank, designated lines for small-business customers generate a positive response from consumers as well as commercial account holders, says Mark Keller, Chase Manhattan vice president in Syracuse.

The business-only lines, he explains, allow customers to avoid waiting in the same line with those making complex commercial transactions that may take longer than a simple noncommercial transaction.

"It works out well for everybody," says Keller.

Fleet Bank, the nation's top Small Business Administration lender, courts small business "aggressively," says spokesman Karl Felsen.

"Small business has provided much of the economic and employment growth over the past decade," he adds.

Fleet has 42 Business Solution Centers serving commercial customers in its Upstate branches. Set apart from the consumer banking section of the branch, Fleet's brand of business banking brings small-business customers traditional commercial services, says Felsen, coupled with newer services such as cash management, retirement programs, and even international banking. A business "specialist," whose sole duty is serving 'business customers, staffs each center.

The emphasis on small business at Fleet, says Felsen, stems from a corporate philosophy of cultivating small business's loyalty in anticipation of future benefits. Small business today, explains Felsen, can become the large business of tomorrow.

"There can be some very nice rewards," he adds, "for establishing a relationship and loyalty early on."