Bank of America announced today it has beefed up its small business lending staff in Las Vegas with the hiring of 13 small business bankers.
Five more will be hired throughout Nevada next year as part of an initiative to hire some 1,000 small business bankers nationwide, B of A said.
Among the duties of small business bankers is to consult with small business owners at their place of business and assess their companies' deposit, credit and cash management needs, the bank said.
Bank of America, along with Wells Fargo, is consistently among the largest retail banks in Southern Nevada. They have 55 and 83 local branches, respectively, according to VEGAS INC research.
“Our small business customers in Las Vegas and across the country have told us that they want access to more expertise and someone who truly understands their needs,” Emily Shanks, B of A small business banking executive for the Western States region, said in a statement.
A spokeswoman said these are new positions as previously there were no specialists focused solely on small businesses with annual revenue of $250,000 to $1 million.
While the Las Vegas-area economy is dominated by large employers such as casinos, hospitals, grocery stores, general merchandise stores, government and schools, Bank of America said there are plenty of small businesses locally.
The bank said that in Nevada it extended nearly $63 million in loans to small businesses in the first half of 2011.
The hiring is planned despite plans by the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank – which is facing elevated residential foreclosures and foreclosure investigations – to cut some 30,000 jobs worldwide over three years.
Decisions on how those cuts would affect specific areas haven’t been made, spokeswoman Colleen Haggerty in Los Angeles said today.