Business
Valley Bank Launches Community Lending Platform
New platform will help Valley as it ramps up services for underserved businesses WAYNE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Valley National Bank (NASDAQ:VLY) today
About this update from Valley National Bancorp
[{"type":"text","content":"\nNew platform will help Valley as it ramps up services for underserved businesses\n\n WAYNE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--\nValley National Bank (NASDAQ:VLY) today announced the launch of a Community Lending platform to streamline processing as it ramps up its efforts to provide more financial products, resources and connections to women and minority-owned businesses.\n\nIn 2021, Valley made more than 6,181 small business loans in low-to-moderate-income census tracts and to businesses with a gross annual revenue of $1 million or less. Valley’s Community Lending Team, which focuses specifically on providing financing solutions to women and minority-owned small businesses within this space, quickly realized the need for a separate platform to organize the program across the Bank’s four states. This new platform makes the application and lending process much easier and faster by reducing a great deal of paperwork that would normally take weeks to process.\n\nThe new platform offers women and minority-owned businesses easier access to traditional products such as payroll, commercial mortgages and merchant services, while also looking at qualifications for loans with a different lens. Instead of just considering traditional requirements related to cash flow and having three years of business history, the bank is also considering personal and business credit scores.\n\nUnder the leadership of National Director of Community Lending Thais R. Sullivan, the department now consists of 15 dedicated professionals and reaches across Valley Bank’s U.S. footprint from New York south through Florida, into underserved communities where businesses often don’t qualify for traditional lending.\n\n“The Community Lending team is committed to looking at financing for these small businesses differently,” said Sullivan. “We examine their growth potential rather than their current size to determine how we can help drive long-term growth. The launch of this platform will help us as we help small businesses along the path to growth and future success.”\n\nSullivan and her team of experienced professionals worked to create the products, resources and relationships to ensure the Community Lending team could provide timely access to the crucial elements to help businesses in need.\n\nThe regional leaders for Community Lending are:\n\n\nLuis De La Hoz, Regional Dire...