| New York Bank Appeals to Customers' Artistic Sense
NEW YORK�Imagine going to the bank for routine transactions, and while waiting for your private banker or standing on line for the clerk, you lift your head and there it is�an art gallery. A museum-quality art gallery, built with the specification of a real museum, is situated inside your bank. "The lights, the air, and the security are the most important for all museums to release their art and antiques to us for display," said Martin Mullin, curator and director of the Gallery at The Park Avenue Bank. The bank's "Meet the Museum" program hosts exhibitions from museums from around the world, and pieces rotate every 6�8 weeks. The Park Avenue Bank is a New York-based community bank with four branches throughout the city. The bank provides full service traditional consumer banking, real estate and commercial lending to small and mid-size businesses and other private banking services.
Bank of America Announces Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2007 Earnings Conference Call
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America Corporation today announced it will present fourth quarter and full-year 2007 financial results on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 9:30 a.m. EST. The presentation, live webcast and other earnings-related information will be available through the Bank of America Investor Relations Web site at http://investor.bankofamerica.com/ . 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 more than 57 million consumer and small business relationships with more than 5,700 retail banking offices, more than 17,000 ATMs and award-winning online banking with more than 23 million active users.
Banks missing opportunities to better serve small business - CFIB
Despite saying it wants to increase service to small- and mid-size business, Canada's banking sector is making little progress, the latest research from CFIB shows. Banking Matters reveals dwindling satisfaction with major financial institutions, with only two improving their rating since the previous survey in 2003. "Since the late 1980s fewer and fewer small business owners have applied for bank financing," CFIB President Catherine Swift explains. Small business loan activity has remained fairly stable since 1988 while loan activity for larger businesses has increased significantly. "This trend shows the banks may be missing opportunities for growth with the small business sector that accounts for 45 per cent of the Canadian economy," Swift says. "You have to question whether banks are meeting the borrowing needs of small businesses." CFIB asked members to rank their financial institution on nine performance indicators, including lending terms, service charges, access to full-service branch, online banking and treatment by their account manager.
Plugged In: Check bank balance via text messaging
For years people have been able to do their banking via computer and more recently via the browser on their cell phones. Now Wells Fargo is offering some limited information via text messaging. The banking giant announced this week that both individual and small-business customers can get their account balances, check for recent activity and get contact information via text messages sent to their cellular phones. .
State grants charter to Greensboro business bank
Greensboro is a step closer to getting its first business-only bank. The North Carolina Banking Commission has granted a charter to Premier Commercial Bank, a startup lender for small and medium-sized businesses. The bank said it expects to open in early 2008. Premier was founded by Frank Gavigan, a longtime Triad banker who was most recently senior credit officer at 1st State Bank in Burlington. It's joining a space that's become increasingly crowded in North Carolina since Raleigh's Paragon Commercial Bank became the state's first business-only bank in 1999. The Triad has yet to get in on the action, however, with most of the startups planting their headquarters in Charlotte or the Triangle. So far, Premier has raised more than $11 million in its initial stock offering, which began Aug.
Bankers see potential in women-owned businesses
Stephanie Zhang had an epiphany. "I was working in the cell phone store one day when I said to myself, 'I could own this place,'" said Zhang, who now owns not one but two wireless stores as president of Best Wireless in San Francisco. Like many entrepreneurs before her, she turned to family to help make her dream a reality. In this case, she accepted $20,000 from her father. She then turned to Wells Fargo Bank for small business banking services such as a company checking account. Zhang represents an important market segment that institutions such as Wells Fargo and Wachovia Bank are heavily courting with a range of such services. .
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