Bank of America Hires More Than 90 Small Business Bankers across the Tri-State Area

As part of its plan to hire 1,000 small business bankers across the nation, Bank of America today announced that it is hiring more than 90 small business bankers in the tri-state area to provide guidance and counsel to local small business owners.

Through a relationship with a Bank of America small business banker, customers will have convenient access to local small business expertise and a dedicated resource who knows their business. Small business bankers will consult with small business owners at their places of business and assess their companies' deposit, credit and cash management needs.

These new hires will support the unique needs of small business owners in the following areas:

• New York City (including Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens) - 28 hires.
• Northern New Jersey - 36 hires.
• Long Island - 18 hires.
• Southern Conn./Westchester - 12 hires.

“Small businesses make up the vast majority of all businesses in the tri-state area, and they are truly the heart and soul of the local economy,” said Jeff Barker, New York City market president for Bank of America. “Bank of America will now have a network of local small business bankers who will be as much a part of the business community as the small business owners they work with and serve every day.”

In New York City alone, there are 206,606 companies with fewer than 100 employees, representing 98 percent of the city’s businesses, according to the New York State Department of Labor. When companies in Northern New Jersey and Long Island are included, this number grows to 458,839, representing 97 percent of the area’s businesses, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. These small business owners are often faced with unique and complex financial demands that require personalized guidance from a small business banker who understands a business owner’s unique needs.

“With the hiring of our small business bankers, Bank of America is taking on a personalized approach to helping a small business owner with their cash management issues,” said Raj Kochhar, Small Business Banker region executive for the Northeast. “Through a relationship with a small business banker, small business owners will have someone they can go to who can help them with every aspect of their finances – from deposit and credit needs, to payroll solutions, to connecting them with other Bank of America specialists who can advise them on anything from commercial real estate to their own personal investment portfolio.”

As a part of its ongoing commitment to small business, Bank of America extended $7.8 billion of credit to small businesses in the first half of 2011, increasing new loans to small businesses by 35 percent. In the state of New York, Bank of America extended more than $640 million in loans to small businesses in the first half of 2011. Bank of America is also among 13 banks that recently pledged to the White House and the Small Business Administration to increase small business lending by a total of $20 billion over the next three years.

As the nation’s largest investor in Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), Bank of America began awarding $10 million in grants in August 2010 to nonprofit lenders for use as loan loss reserves required to access federal microlending capital. The program, which has recently been increased to $12 million, has enabled CDFIs across the country to access more than $80 million in capital to serve nearly 8,300 local businesses and help create or retain more than 11,300 jobs.

Following a June 2010 announcement, Bank of America increased its spending with small, medium-sized and diverse businesses through a commitment to purchase $10 billion in products and services from those suppliers over five years.

Other efforts to help small businesses include a new suite of small business charge cards that give businesses more choice and control over their payment and expense management needs. Additionally, Bank of America has made recent improvements to the bank's two million small business credit card accounts, such as no penalty rate increases on existing balances. Additional enhancements have been made to the Advisor Alliance™ retirement plan platform, which serves more than 950,000 people from more than 40,000 businesses. Advisor Alliance combines Merrill Lynch investment and advisory services with a choice of diverse, committed partners to provide competitive recordkeeping and plan administration services for businesses’ retirement plan needs.

Bank of America

Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small- and middle-market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 58 million consumer and small business relationships with approximately 5,700 retail banking offices and approximately 17,800 ATMs and award-winning online banking with 30 million active users. Bank of America is among the world's leading wealth management companies and is a global leader in corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry-leading support to approximately 4 million small business owners through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations in more than 40 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

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www.bankofamerica.com