PROVIDENCE – Three Rhode Island lenders will be recognized this month for making the highest rate of U.S Small Business Administration-backed loans to minority-owned companies.
The awards will be presented at the 2008 Rhode Island Minority Enterprise Development Week awards dinner – sponsored by the SBA and the Rhode Island Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce – to be held Wednesday, Oct. 15, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel Providence-Warwick. The hotel is located in the Crossings development on Greenwich Avenue (Route 5) in Warwick.
Coastway Credit Union will receive the SBA Rhode Island district’s Gold Award for Minority Lending. CCU had 15 loans to minority-owned small businesses – more than any other SBA lender in Rhode Island – among the 55 SBA-guaranteed loans the credit union made in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30.
The Silver Award for Minority Lending will be presented to Citizens Bank, which made 11 SBA-backed loans to minority business in the last fiscal year, out of the 84 SBA loans it issued.
The Bronze Award for Minority Lending will be presented to Bank Rhode Island, which made 45 loans guaranteed by the SBA last year, 10 of them to Rhode Island minority small businesses.
“I thank Coastway Credit Union, Citizens Bank and Bank RI for their commitment to the Rhode Island small business community,” said Mark S. Hayward, director of the SBA Rhode Island district office. “In these challenging times, it is critical that minority small businesses have access to the funding that they need to start, grow and succeed.”
For information about the awards dinner, call Vision Strategies, the event coordinator for the Rhode Island Hispanic American Chamber, at (401) 785-0333.
For additional information about the U.S. Small Business Administration and its programs, call the SBA’s Rhode Island district office at 528-4561 or visit www.sba.gov.
Coastway Credit Union, based in Cranston, has seven branches across Rhode Island. For more information about the credit union or its Coastway Cares Charitable Foundation Inc., visit www.coastway.com.
Citizens Bank of Rhode Island is a subsidiary of the Providence-based Citizens Financial Group Inc., a commercial bank holding company with about 1,600 branches in 13 states and non-branch offices in about 40 states that is owned by the Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc. (London Stock Exchange: RBS.L; NYSE: RBS). To learn more, visit CitizensBank.com.
Bank Rhode Island, a subsidiary of the Providence-based Bancorp Rhode Island Inc. (Nasdaq: BARI), has 16 branches in Providence, Kent and Washington counties. To learn more about BankRI and its parent company, visit BankRI.com.
The Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce of Rhode Island, incorporated as a nonprofit on Sept. 11, 2000, was founded to advocate, promote and facilitate the success of Hispanic businesses. Additional information about the Chamber and the upcoming 2008 R.I. Minority Enterprise Development (MED) week, with events slated for Oct. 14 through 17, is available at www.haccri.org.
