Please RSVP to Ana Rivera via prhccpc@gmail.com Where Johnson Chapel - Bolin Library
First Meeting
Special Hosts
Southeastern
University
Special Speaker
SBDC
Janette Blanco
Special Hosts
Southeastern
University
Special Speaker
SBDC
Janette Blanco
Great Article for Small Businesses:
Korean immigrant John Kim worked in New York City restaurants for 30 years
before opening three large delicatessens that employ more than 100 workers. But
Kim doesn’t bank with the major financial institutions that are his Manhattan
neighbors. His lender is Noah
Bank, which caters to Korean-American entrepreneurs and has four
branches in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. “Whatever we need, they work
with us. We couldn’t have done it without them,” says Kim’s wife, Maria.
Noah Bank, with assets of $228 million, is tiny compared with megabanks like
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C). Yet in 2011,
its first year of operations, Noah topped every other bank in the Small Business
Administration’s New York district in SBA-guaranteed 7(a) loans, lending more
than $88 million to 68 entrepreneurs, according to data from the agency. Most of
its loans are to small, immigrant-owned ventures, says Doug Smith, the bank’s
chief credit officer.
At least five of the top 25 SBA lenders nationally are banks with deep
roots in immigrant communities, including Noah. Especially since larger banks
have backed off small business loans following the financial crisis of 2008,
these smaller lenders court immigrant entrepreneurs by looking beyond credit
scores and cash-flow projections.
VIDEO: How Can the Small Banks Outperform Big
Banks?
Small lenders in immigrant enclaves require most employees to be bilingual,
and they understand how culture influences borrowers’ financial priorities and
business sensibilities. Noah’s chief executive officer, Edward Shin, establishes
personal relationships with entrepreneurs, visiting their companies and getting
to know them. “In loan committee [meetings], Mr. Shin will ask, ‘He’s got a
brother who’s married to a doctor, right?’ We’re looking for character and
professionalism and family success rates,” Smith says.
Lending decisions that may look questionable on paper may make sense with
closer scrutiny, says Samuel Ahne, a Korean-American attorney whose Manhattan
business law practice serves many entrepreneurs. Banks catering to immigrant
communities “may look like they are more liberal in lending, but that’s because
they know the inside story” of their clients’ businesses, Ahne says. “They know
the mother and father work there and there are a lot of people who will be
willing to pay off a loan if something happens.”
Lenders catering to immigrant entrepreneurs may struggle to reach clients who
are distrustful of or unfamiliar with U.S. financial institutions, says Ahne.
“In Korea, if you don’t pay your loan, it becomes a criminal matter,” he says.
“Your credit history controls your life. If you make a mistake, it follows you
forever.” That cultural difference puts the onus on banks to do extensive
customer education not often seen at mainstream U.S. banks.
STORY: A Year-End Checkup to Keep Your Small Business
Healthy
While some immigrant-focused lenders, including Cathay Bank (CATY) and
East-West Bank (EWBC), have
assets in the tens of billions, small community banks often thrive in SBA
lending. “We’re very big on hand-holding and teaching our clients,” says Jesse
Torres, CEO of Pan American Bank, with $38 million in assets. It
was founded in 1964 by Romana Acosta Bañuelos, owner of Ramona’s Mexican Food
Products and the first Latina to serve as U.S. Treasurer, under President
Richard Nixon.
Pan American also offers financial and computer literacy classes at its
headquarters in East Los Angeles. Torres, who grew up in the area, estimates
that 40 percent of people in the surrounding neighborhood have limited access to
financial services.
Small business owners who approach him have often operated on a cash basis
for years and don’t have the financial records to qualify for loans at larger
banks. “We break bread with them and look at their application in a manner that
larger banks are not able to,” Torres says. “If they honestly are not ready for
financing, we pass them over to a nonprofit that helps them with their financial
statements.”
STORY: Helping Businesses and Banks Hook Up
Nonprofits and professionals like attorneys and loan brokers in immigrant
communities steer clients to smaller banks that can meet their needs, says
business consultant Francisco De Vivo, owner of FAJ Consulting in Los Angeles.
Many of his clients believe that banks are strictly for the wealthy and
well-connected, he says, because in many countries, “your last name has to be
right in order for you to get a loan.” As a result, some immigrant-owned
businesses reach the limit of how much they can grow without financing. “I find
people doing more than $1 million a year in revenues who have never had a loan,”
De Vivo says. “They’re doing it all on cash flow.”
That’s what happened to Juan Ramirez, an immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico, who
has owned seafood restaurant El Rinconcito Del Mar in East Los Angeles for 25
years. The restaurant was bursting at the seams a decade ago, when De Vivo
helped Ramirez get a $700,000 loan from Americas United Bank in Glendale,
Calif., which caters to Hispanic business owners. The money allowed him to move
into a location five times the size of his original space. “I’ve never really
tried to do any major transactions with mainstream banks,” Ramirez says, “but I
know they’re more strict.”
Korean immigrant John Kim worked in New York City restaurants for 30 years
before opening three large delicatessens that employ more than 100 workers. But
Kim doesn’t bank with the major financial institutions that are his Manhattan
neighbors. His lender is Noah
Bank, which caters to Korean-American entrepreneurs and has four
branches in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. “Whatever we need, they work
with us. We couldn’t have done it without them,” says Kim’s wife, Maria.
Noah Bank, with assets of $228 million, is tiny compared with megabanks like
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C). Yet in 2011,
its first year of operations, Noah topped every other bank in the Small Business
Administration’s New York district in SBA-guaranteed 7(a) loans, lending more
than $88 million to 68 entrepreneurs, according to data from the agency. Most of
its loans are to small, immigrant-owned ventures, says Doug Smith, the bank’s
chief credit officer.
At least five of the top 25 SBA lenders nationally are banks with deep
roots in immigrant communities, including Noah. Especially since larger banks
have backed off small business loans following the financial crisis of 2008,
these smaller lenders court immigrant entrepreneurs by looking beyond credit
scores and cash-flow projections.
VIDEO: How Can the Small Banks Outperform Big
Banks?
Small lenders in immigrant enclaves require most employees to be bilingual,
and they understand how culture influences borrowers’ financial priorities and
business sensibilities. Noah’s chief executive officer, Edward Shin, establishes
personal relationships with entrepreneurs, visiting their companies and getting
to know them. “In loan committee [meetings], Mr. Shin will ask, ‘He’s got a
brother who’s married to a doctor, right?’ We’re looking for character and
professionalism and family success rates,” Smith says.
Lending decisions that may look questionable on paper may make sense with
closer scrutiny, says Samuel Ahne, a Korean-American attorney whose Manhattan
business law practice serves many entrepreneurs. Banks catering to immigrant
communities “may look like they are more liberal in lending, but that’s because
they know the inside story” of their clients’ businesses, Ahne says. “They know
the mother and father work there and there are a lot of people who will be
willing to pay off a loan if something happens.”
Lenders catering to immigrant entrepreneurs may struggle to reach clients who
are distrustful of or unfamiliar with U.S. financial institutions, says Ahne.
“In Korea, if you don’t pay your loan, it becomes a criminal matter,” he says.
“Your credit history controls your life. If you make a mistake, it follows you
forever.” That cultural difference puts the onus on banks to do extensive
customer education not often seen at mainstream U.S. banks.
STORY: A Year-End Checkup to Keep Your Small Business
Healthy
While some immigrant-focused lenders, including Cathay Bank (CATY) and
East-West Bank (EWBC), have
assets in the tens of billions, small community banks often thrive in SBA
lending. “We’re very big on hand-holding and teaching our clients,” says Jesse
Torres, CEO of Pan American Bank, with $38 million in assets. It
was founded in 1964 by Romana Acosta Bañuelos, owner of Ramona’s Mexican Food
Products and the first Latina to serve as U.S. Treasurer, under President
Richard Nixon.
Pan American also offers financial and computer literacy classes at its
headquarters in East Los Angeles. Torres, who grew up in the area, estimates
that 40 percent of people in the surrounding neighborhood have limited access to
financial services.
Small business owners who approach him have often operated on a cash basis
for years and don’t have the financial records to qualify for loans at larger
banks. “We break bread with them and look at their application in a manner that
larger banks are not able to,” Torres says. “If they honestly are not ready for
financing, we pass them over to a nonprofit that helps them with their financial
statements.”
STORY: Helping Businesses and Banks Hook Up
Nonprofits and professionals like attorneys and loan brokers in immigrant
communities steer clients to smaller banks that can meet their needs, says
business consultant Francisco De Vivo, owner of FAJ Consulting in Los Angeles.
Many of his clients believe that banks are strictly for the wealthy and
well-connected, he says, because in many countries, “your last name has to be
right in order for you to get a loan.” As a result, some immigrant-owned
businesses reach the limit of how much they can grow without financing. “I find
people doing more than $1 million a year in revenues who have never had a loan,”
De Vivo says. “They’re doing it all on cash flow.”
That’s what happened to Juan Ramirez, an immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico, who
has owned seafood restaurant El Rinconcito Del Mar in East Los Angeles for 25
years. The restaurant was bursting at the seams a decade ago, when De Vivo
helped Ramirez get a $700,000 loan from Americas United Bank in Glendale,
Calif., which caters to Hispanic business owners. The money allowed him to move
into a location five times the size of his original space. “I’ve never really
tried to do any major transactions with mainstream banks,” Ramirez says, “but I
know they’re more strict.”
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