Greenfield Banking Company is Indiana's 2019 Small Business Lender of the Year

Greenfield Banking Company is the Indiana Small Business Lender of the Year for 2019. Greenfield Banking was awarded the honor by Indiana Statewide Certified Development Corporation. The Statewide CDC works with local banks such as Greenfield Banking to provide loans to Indiana small business owners from the US Small Business Administration 504 loan program. Christy Smith and Greg Woods of Greenfield Banking accepted the award from Jean Wojtowicz (wah-tow-wits), executive director of Indiana Statewide CDC. First Financial Bank of Terre Haute is the runner-up for the award. More than twenty Indiana Banks were in the running. The small business lender of the year is the Indiana bank devoting the largest percentage of its deposits to US Small Business Administration 504 small business loans with Indiana Statewide CDC. SBA 504 loans offer loan rates and extended repayment periods to small businesses that are generally available only to large companies in conventional business loans. Other individual commercial bank lenders were also honored at Indiana Statewide CDC's annual meeting in Indianapolis. First Merchants Bank generated the most SBA 504 loans with Indiana Statewide CDC, with seven loans totaling $7.2 million in bonds sold by the SBA to finance the loans. George Dougherty of First Merchants was the individual banker who generated the most SBA 504 loans, with two. Those two loans totaled $5.7 million in SBA bond sales, and that number also led the state for an individual lender. All the awards were for banking activity with Indiana Statewide CDC for the fiscal year 2019 that ended September 30. During that year, Indiana Statewide CDC approved $34.1 million in loans to Indiana small business owners. The amount is the largest of any of the state's certified lenders of SBA 504 funds. The loans helped create or save approximately 680 jobs. The $34.1 million of approvals were to 40 borrowers Total investment in Indiana Statewide CDC's 40 loan projects topped $85 million; a combination of SBA 504, bank funds and down payments by the business owners. Since 1983, Indiana Statewide CDC has approved more than $690 million of financing for more than 1,500 Indiana companies, creating or saving more than 27,000 jobs, and is the most prolific CDC in Indiana. These projects represent over $1.8 billion in expansion financing for Indiana small businesses.