M&T Bank Minority & Women Business Enterprise Outreach
There is a constant cliché thrown around the disadvantaged, minority, and women-owned business community that says, “commercial banks are not doing enough to assist such deserving firms in meeting their financing needs.”
While this cliché may be true for some institutions, it’s far from true for M&T Bank in the Greater Baltimore region. Several weeks ago, M&T Bank opened its new downtown Baltimore headquarters and invited about 70 bright, energetic women and minority business owners to meet Greater Baltimore-Chesapeake M&T Bank President August Chiasera, his executive team, and their small business development bankers. Together, there were about 15 M&T Bank representatives in the room looking to do business. M&T Bank is serious about establishing new relationships and is committed to doing so.
The occasion was set up as a breakfast seminar to educate the business owners on Small Business Administration (SBA) financing, conventional bank financing, and cash flow. The bank also brought in their wholly-owned subsidiary that offers surety bonding and commercial liability insurance products. To further embellish the business owners, M&T Bank asked Meridian Management Group (MMG) to participate and discuss their financing programs. MMG, represented by Senior Vice President Timothy Smoot, lends to firms who are unable to acquire conventional bank financing. Often MMG will underwrite a transaction, if worthy, that conventional banks aren’t able to do because of their credit policies. Therefore, M&T Bank covered all the basis of small business banking needs (SBA lending, conventional lending, cash flow, alternative financing, and commercial insurance and surety bonding) during its seminar.
“M&T Bank definitely exceeded my expectations with this financing seminar,” said Wayne R. Frazier, Sr., President of Md. Washington Minority Companies Association (MWMCA). “The room was filled with small, minority and women owned business that represent construction, staffing, marketing, material commodity suppliers, healthcare, transportation, commercial furnishings, landscaping, financial services, armed security, and consulting. Even the City of Baltimore’s Mayor’s Office of Small, Minority, and Women Business Development Director, Paul Taylor, attended. M&T Bank is a special place to do business and I’m glad they are on our side.”
One of the small business attendees, Robert Rodriguez, President of Triple R Construction Corporation, an underground utility contractor, had this to say, “Detra Miller and Kevin Jackson with M&T bank has been a huge help and success. We recently got approved for a new business line of credit to help our company grow! Because of this, our business plan can become a living dream. I appreciate you for building the relationship with people like M&T Bank because if it wasn’t for MWMCA, I probably wouldn’t feel as confident/motivated with moving forward into what the future has for our business to grow.”
A special thanks to Detra Miller, AVP Business Banking/Team Leader for bringing us all together. Detra welcomes and would like to bank with all types of small, minority and women-owned businesses.
Further acknowledgements to presenters and supporters:
Craig Engelhaupt, VP, SBA Business Banking Relationship Manager
Kevin Jackson, AVP, Business Banking Regional Manager
Griffin Wilson, Account Executive, Banking Officer, M&T Insurance Agency
Eleni Monios, Group Vice President, Business and Professional Banking
Contact:
Detra Miller
Phone: 410-832-7814
Email: dmackey@mtb.com
