Tracy: Why your small business should bank with a community bank

Who you bank with matters.

Banking with a community partner that is vested in the success of your business and your community is important.

Community banks best deliver the vital banking services that small businesses and local communities need in order to thrive. We combine a superior level of personal service and state of the art products and technology with a powerful and nimble delivery structure that is difficult to match by regional and nationwide banks.

Community banking consists of giving the customer personalized service versus institutionalized service. If an urgent banking matter arises, your phone call to a community bank will be greeted by a live banker, not a recording.

Community banks have the flexibility and creativity to meet the needs of small businesses at the point of customer contact. Community banks have senior decision makers located in the market, not thousands of miles away in a remote location outside of the community.

When it comes to business financing, you and your business are not an anonymous account number asking for funding, but a valued stakeholder that contributes to the success of the bank and the community.

Business lending is not conducted by remote loan centers or by credit score, but by lenders who will take the time to know your story and understand your business plan.

During the pandemic it was community banks that delivered an oversized market share of PPP loans to provide immediate stimulus relief to struggling businesses, including loans to small businesses that could not obtain a return call from their large national banks.

Additionally, the emergence of digital banking and other fintech solutions have eliminated the technological advantage that large national banks used to enjoy.

As for community involvement, Community banks take a leading role in supporting local chambers of commerce with funding and active participation in programs that foster local economic growth and opportunity. At BNC we recently partnered with the City of Peoria and the Peoria Unified School District to provide a customized summer intern program to develop our youth and local workforce.

At BNC our mission is to serve the banking needs of business owners and their employees through a relationship first approach, delivering value added financial solutions and high touch customer service. We achieve our mission by following our core values: Honesty and Integrity, Live the Golden Rule, and Find a Way. We would welcome an opportunity to be of service to you!

Editor's note:  David Tracy is the Senior VP for BNC Bank.