Citizens Bank ranks No. 1 small business lender in New Hampshire and New England
Citizens is No. 2 lender nationwide for the fifth consecutive year, reflecting its commitment to helping small businesses growMANCHESTER, N.H. (October 3, 2006) - Citizens Bank today announced it ranks as the No. 1 SBA lender in New Hampshire and New England for fiscal year 2006, which ended on Friday, September 29, 2006 for SBA lending. Citizens Financial Group, Inc. was also named the No. 2 lender in the country for the fifth consecutive year, reflecting its commitment to helping small businesses grow.
In New Hampshire, Citizens topped all SBA lenders in both number of loans and dollar amount for the ninth consecutive year with 362 loans totaling more than $16 million.
In New England, Citizens was the No. 1 originator of SBA loans in both number of loans and dollar amount with approximately 2,000 loans totaling more than $90 million. This is the 8th year Citizens has received this honor.
Companywide, Citizens Financial Group’s Citizens Bank and Charter One Bank subsidiaries originated more than 6,800 loans, totaling more than $320 million. Fiscal year 2006 marks the second consecutive year Charter One Bank has been named the No. 1 SBA lender in the Midwest. Charter One enhanced its focus on small business lending to better serve the needs of its customers following Citizens Financial Group’s acquisition of the bank in September 2004. In the Mid-Atlantic region, Citizens Bank is the No. 1 SBA lender again this year in every market it does business, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, upstate New York and Delaware.
“Citizens is proud once again to be the #1 SBA lender in the state and throughout New England. Small businesses are critical contributors to the New Hampshire economy and we recognize their importance to our communities,” said Cathleen Schmidt, president and CEO of Citizens Bank New Hampshire. “We look forward to continuing to meet the financing needs of small businesses through our SBA lending, specialized banking services and our knowledge and appreciation of this important sector.”
One New Hampshire company to take advantage of an SBA loan through Citizens is Design Wares of Nashua located at 206 Main Street. Design Wares obtained a line of credit to support its growing retail business. “We specialize in providing unique hand crafted items from select artists and studios,” said Marylou Blaisdell, owner of Design Wares. “Financing from Citizens is vital to enable us to purchase the high quality merchandise our customers have come to expect.”
In addition to providing SBA loans, Citizens offers a wide array of products and services to help small businesses grow and expand. In September, the bank released the results of the Citizens Bank Small Business Pulse Survey, designed to explore and track issues that impact small business growth. This is the first year Citizens has conducted the survey in New Hampshire.
About Citizens Bank New Hampshire
Citizens Bank New Hampshire, with 79 branches and 167 ATMs, is a $10 billion state-chartered, full-service commercial bank headquartered in Manchester. It is a subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, Inc., a $164 billion commercial bank holding company headquartered in Providence, R.I. Citizens has more than 1,600 branches, approximately 3,200 ATMs and more than 26,000 employees in a 13-state retail branch network and has non-branch retail and commercial offices in about 40 states. Citizens is the eighth-largest commercial banking company in the United States ranked by deposits and ninth in assets as of March 31, 2006. Citizens is owned by RBS (The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc).
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