BBCN Bank named SBA Export Lender of the Year 2013

April 3, 2013

(SBA) SBA, Lenders Convene in Washington, D.C. for the 6th Annual SBA Export Lenders’ Roundtable

WASHINGTON –U.S. Small Business Administrator (SBA) Karen Mills today named BBCN Bank the SBA Export Lender of the Year for 2013. During the announcement, made at today’s 6th Annual Export Lenders’ Roundtable in Washington, D.C., Administrator Mills highlighted the Los Angeles lender’s continued work facilitating international trade financing for small businesses, including the nearly $13 million in export working capital financed by BBCN in 2012.

“Today, nearly 96 percent of consumers and over two-thirds of the world's purchasing power reside outside the United States, and SBA is committed to providing small businesses with the tools they need to tap into this global market,” said Administrator Mills. “In partnership with BBCN Bank and our partners across the lending community, SBA is creating more access and opportunity for the approximately 268,000 small businesses that currently export, and ensuring that even more small businesses have the capital they need to successfully reach customers overseas.”

BBCN, which specializes in banking products for small and medium sized businesses, serves a diverse mix of customers that mirror their respective communities, including the largest Korean population concentration outside Korea. The bank holds more than $5 billion in assets and participates in the Preferred Lender Program with the SBA.

Small businesses now constitute 34 percent of total export dollars, and comprise approximately 97.8 percent of all exporters. Today’s forum brought SBA lending and international trade officials together with our federal and lending partners to address ways to build upon these successes—including ways to expand access to small business trade financing—and to update lenders on changes to SBA loan programs and review improved lender oversight.

Another high point of the roundtable was the launch of the U.S. Global Business Solutions pilot program, a cross-agency effort geared toward increased access to finance for SME exporters.

The six federal agencies involved in the program are:

  • Export-Import Bank
  • U.S. Small Business Administration
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture
  • U.S. Department of Commerce/International Trade Administration
  • U.S. Trade Development Agency; and
  • Overseas Private Investment Corporation
GBS is an initiative that bundles trade finance products for lenders and exporters in a collaborative, customer-focused and cost-effective manner. The program will reduce the complexity of trade finance by presenting a streamlined package of financing options to clients, while simultaneously focusing on high-volume products for lenders.

For more information about the 6th Annual SBA Export Lenders Forum, contact Dennis Chrisbaum at dennis.chrisbaum@sba.gov.

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