Bank of America Corporation (BAC) said on Tuesday that it has hired 75 small business bankers in the mid-Atlantic area, including 25 in the Baltimore-Washington DC area, 11 in Philadelphia and the remaining in southern New Jersey.
This is a part of BofA’s previously announced plan to hire more than 1,000 small business bankers across the country this year. The Baltimore-Washington DC, the greater Los Angeles and Dallas were the three markets where hiring initially started.
BofA appointed Raj Kochhar as Small Business Banker executive for the Northeast, to oversee and manage the hiring. In this newly created role, he will supervise the small business banker sales force across the region.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there are about 14,664 small businesses in Washington, D.C. alone. These small business owners often face unique and complex financial demands. Hence, these demands require customized guidance and attention from a small business banker, who can understand their unique needs. Therefore, BofA is hiring small business bankers in order to tap the huge demand for personalized help in the region.
Through a relation with BofA’s small business banker, a small business owner will be able to access local expertise and a dedicated resource who properly understands its exclusive needs. The small business banker will evaluate the business owner’s credit, deposits and cash management needs besides providing guidance. This will enable these businesses to manage their finances in a better way and run their business more efficiently.
In 2010, BofA extended credit worth $18 billion to small businesses compared with $16.5 billion in 2009. Since August 2010, the company has also provided $10 million in grants to nonprofit lenders to access federal microlending capital.
In June last year, BofA had pledged to buy $10 billion of product and services from these companies over the next half decade, with a 5% increase in spending every year. In 2010, the company had already utilized $4.1 billion for this purpose.
Additionally, on May 16, BofA had announced the launch of three small business charge cards that will significantly help small businesses to control their payment and manage expenses. Apart from these, BofA’s efforts to help small businesses include development of the Advisor AllianceTM retirement plan platform (serving more than 900,000 people from about 40,000 businesses).
Walking along the same path with BofA, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Wells Fargo & Company (WFC) are also trying to accelerate economic recovery by lending to small businesses.
Currently, the shares of BofA retain a Zacks #4 Rank, which translates into a short-term ‘Sell’ rating. Also, considering the company’s fundamental weakness, we have a long-term “Underperform” recommendation on the stock.
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