Thinking small: Banks build their small-business offerings.

• Author: Beck, Bill
• Position: Banking - Brief Article

Small business drives the American economy, even in a recession, and Indiana bankers have not been slow to pick up on that. An increasing number of Hoosier banks are targeting the small business market niche with products and services designed to win brand loyalty from small business owners.

Monroe Bank started its business development department about four years ago. The 110-year-old Bloomington bank has prided itself on serving the small business community throughout its history, but the personal approach takes a real commitment from bank leaders.

"A lot of times," says bank president Mark Bradford, "I'm directly involved in calling on people. We try to have myself or other senior level people out there calling on small business customers. Four or five days a week, I'm at lunch with either a current customer or a prospective customer."

Bradford notes that the one-on-one method works. "With some of our small business customers," he says, "we planted seeds 10 years ago. We know that we don't win them all immediately, but permanence and persistence does pay dividends." Bradford ticks off three small-business customers in Bloomington that he's been courting since he joined the bank 11 years ago--and that are all now Monroe Bank customers.

"Those are just the very visible examples," he says. "But they just want somebody to talk to, not an 800 number. I give them my direct line."

TAPPING THE SMALL BUSINESS MARKET

Small town and de novo banks aren't the only Indiana financial services institutions chasing the small business market. Some of the region's major banking players are taking a renewed interest in the multibillion-dollar small business marketplace.

Bank One is making a major commitment to capturing small business accounts. Bill Casaro, Bank One's small business banking manager for Central Indiana, says the bank is working hard to convince small business in the Indianapolis metropolitan area that Bank One is very interested in their business. The bank is setting up a completely separate infrastructure for entrepreneurs, and the bank has allocated people, resources, products and services dedicated specifically to the small business market.

"You would be hard-pressed to find a small business in central Indiana that wouldn't be satisfied by the services that Bank One has to offer them," Casaro says. Those services range from loans to cash and treasury management to insurance, investments, and business continuation planning.

With 90 Bank One...