Union Bank Is Named Ex-Im Bank's Small Business Lender of the Year
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Union Bank, N.A., based in San Francisco, Calif., is to receive the 2009 Small Business Lender of the Year award from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) at the Bank's 75th anniversary annual conference in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, April 16.
An Ex-Im Bank Delegated Authority Lender since 1994, Union Bank has steadily increased its loan portfolio using Ex-Im Bank's working capital guarantee product, expanding by 280 percent between fiscal year 2006 and fiscal year 2008. Ex-Im Bank's guarantee of commercial lenders' working capital loans helps small businesses build inventory to fill foreign orders. Lenders such as Union Bank that join the Delegated Authority Lender Program can approve the Ex-Im Bank-guaranteed loans without prior approval from Ex-Im Bank, greatly expediting access to financing.
We've put a major focus on using Ex-Im Bank loan guarantees, which has helped us immeasurably in developing new relationships, said Bill Snyder, Union Bank senior vice president, Global Trade and Sales. Using the loan guarantee, we can virtually always provide greater availability of lendable funds to an exporting customer; our advance rates on accounts receivable and inventory can be higher than what we would normally provide because of the Ex-Im Bank guarantee.
As a result, Snyder said, Union bank is very stable and gaining customers in the midst of the current liquidity crisis. What has been happening in the market is a flight to stability, on both the deposit and lending sides for banks.
Union Bank is a very valuable partner for Ex-Im Bank in providing small U.S. companies with the financing tools they need to grow and maintain U.S. jobs by exporting during the current economic crisis, said John A. McAdams, Ex-Im Bank chief operating officer and senior vice president, Export Finance. We are delighted to recognize Union Bank's achievements by presenting them with this well-deserved award.
Ex-Im Bank's 34th annual conference on April 16-17 will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. The award ceremony will take place after the April 16 luncheon program which begins at 12:30 p.m.
For more information on Ex-Im Bank and the annual conference, including the current agenda, and to register online to attend, visit www.exim.gov.
Ex-Im Bank is the official export-credit agency of the United States. The independent, self-sustaining federal agency, now celebrating its 75th anniversary, helps create and maintain U.S. jobs by financing the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to emerging markets throughout the world, by providing loan guarantees, export-credit insurance and direct loans.
In Fiscal Year 2008, Ex-Im Bank authorized $3.2 billion — more than 22 percent of total authorizations — in direct support of U.S. small businesses as primary exporters. The Bank approved 2,328 transactions for the direct benefit of small business exporters, representing 86 percent of the total number of transactions approved. In addition, an estimated $1.1 billion of Ex-Im Bank's long-term authorizations is attributable to indirect small business exports — goods or services that are sold by U.S. small businesses to other U.S. companies and subsequently exported.