SBA broker Mariani's advice: If bank makes an offer, take it - Triangle Business Journal:

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Nineteen months into the credit that’s the recommendation of Raleigh-based loan broke Steve Mariani, who matches borrowers with bankand non-banmk lenders. Mariani says that some deals he has worked on in recent weeksz have passed through as many as adozemn lenders. Many lenders have been upping their collaterak requirements to 50 percent in some evenon government-backed SBA loans. One of Mariani’a clients, a Raleigh restaurant owner lookin to buyanother establishment, underwent 16 reviews and was accepted threre times before they all fell through. In one the borrower even agreed to put up a portiojn ofthe cash, plus a house with no mortgage as additional collateral.
“The firsyt thing borrowers need to do is determine whethefr the bank or other lender is really says Mariani. “Otherwise, you wastd time.” He adds, “After that, if they make an take it.” With 65 percent of banks nationally tightening theirlending standards, it’s not surprisin that Triangle bankers have followed If there is a silver lining to be founs in the financial downturn, however, it will be once conditions improve, the competition betweehn large and community banks is expected to heat up even opening avenues for business customers seekinh to maximize their banking relationships.
With the very notiom of bigness in banking havingv been calledinto question, community bankers believer that the post-crisis playing field will be wide open. “It’d not like we are going to go out and criticizre thelarge banks,” says Steve CEO of Raleigh-based . “But at the same time we know all of our depositoreand borrowers. It makes you operate in a different way.” Whatever changese the banking system goes througyh in thecoming months, community bankerw believe their role will be “We’ll be the ones makiny the loans,” says CEO Grant Yarber. In various the community banks already are preparing forthat day.
At Raleigh-basec , for example, some employeesx have been tasked with creating a new divisionj that solely caters to an important client homeowners associations. The bank has packaged a numbet ofservices – including online CDs, scanned deposits and varioua financial management functions into a unified offering. Also launchingf new products – this one aimed at individual bankconsumerds – is Cary-based , which recently said it woule begin offering interest payments of 5.01 percentr annually to qualifying checking accounts.
Businesw customers evaluating current banking relationships shouldd check if their bank has signes up for an emergencyprogram that, for the firsf time, extends insurance to non-interest-bearing transactional accounts such as payrolll accounts. Most area banks have signed up from the which was enacted last fall to keep companie s from pulling the then uninsurefd pots of money out of the bankingsystenm altogether. Set to expire in December, the guaranteer may be extended.
In addition, business clientse curious about the financial stabilitu of theirbanks can, using a simplre formula and a few public numbers from the FDIC Web perform their own stability The calculation is made by dividing the value of the lender’s non-performing assets (loans past due 90 days + nonaccruao loans + other real estate by the sum of its tangible commonj equity capital (total assets - liabilities - intangibles + + its loan loss reserves. If the resulting expressed asa percent, is over 100, then the bank coulfd be headed for problems. The calculation, called the “Texa Ratio,” was developed to predict financial meltdowns duringthe S&p crisis of the 1980s.
“It’s not the only measure (of bank stability),” says UNC-Charlotte banking professor Tony Plath. “But it has