Last week, nine executives from small and community banks met with President Donald Trump and members of his administration to discuss the hurdles smaller financial institutions face day in and day out.
The president expressed his deep appreciation for small banks and stressed the critical role they play when it comes to job creation, one of the more prominent campaign promises he ran on.
“Community banks play a vital role in helping create jobs by providing approximately half of all loans to small businesses, and that’s been dwindling because the community banks have been in big trouble,” said President Trump.
“Nearly half of all private-sector workers are employed by small businesses. We must ensure access to capital. Small businesses — small businesses to grow. Community banks are the backbone of small business in America. We are going to preserve our community banks.”
President Trump also reiterated his desire to deregulate the banking industry, so that companies can go back to growing their businesses and helping the American people.
“You’ll be able to loan. You’ll be able to be safe. But you’ll be able to provide the jobs that we want and also create great businesses,” he said.
- Dorothy Savarese
The Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank | Cape Cod, Massachusetts - Leslie Andersen
Bank of Bennington | Bennington, Nebraska - Tim Zimmerman
Standard Bank | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - Rebeca Romero Rainey
Centinel Bank | Taos, New Mexico - Luanne Cundiff
First State Bank of St. Charles | St Charles, Missouri - Scott Heitkamp
ValueBank Texas | Corpus Christi, Texas - Laura Steward
Sound Community Bank | Seattle, Washington - Jeff Szyperski
Chesapeake Bank | Kilmarnock, Virginia - Ken Burgess
FirstCapital Bank of Texas | Midland, Texas
