At K Bank, the company sees the importance of keeping money in the community ? as opposed to a vault.
Recently, the financial institution joined with several other area banks to form a consortium of local lending agencies that will help create loans to kick-start small businesses in the Baltimore area.
By cycling cash back into local companies with the help of other banks and Baltimore County Economic Development, the group helps to create a loan that keeps on giving to the area economy.
“K Bank has traditionally been a good small-business lender,” said Stan Jacobs, the chief financial officer of Baltimore County Department of Economic Development. “I think you will find that they tend to be a more traditional lender and sit down with business owners and try to work through issues ? they are much more hands-on.”
Banding together in December, K Bank became part of the small-business loan program that was originally founded in 1996. Through joining, K Bank and the other two institutions helped raise the available loan pool from about $6 million to more than $10 million. These loans, conducted in part with BCED, are low interest and available in amounts up to $500,000 for local small businesses.
“In banking, you take in deposits and pay interest on deposits and you make a return,” said David Wells, president of K Bank. “To be able to make a return you have to be an active lender, and we are very much that.”
In K Bank?s most recently posted financial results, it stated current assets of $690 million in late 2006. This number was boosted by a 9 percent growth in net deposits for the year, increasing from $512 million to $558 million.
What many people know today as K Bank was originally founded in 1961 in Randallstown as Key Federal Savings and Loan Association. By 1996, Key had changed its charter from a savings and loan to one of a state commercial bank. Featuring more than eight branches in 2003, the bank was poised to undergo a transition and it changed its name and logo to that of K Bank, the moniker community members know today.
“We have helped a lot of small business, and we look to continue to do that and more,” Wells said.
