Rockland Trust has joined Treasurer Steve Grossman’s Small Business Banking Partnership, which will allow the bank to increase local small business lending.

Rockland Trust will use funding from the partnership to offer small businesses equipment financing and lines of credit.

"Rockland Trust is excited about participating in the Small Business Banking Partnership," said Rockland Trust President and CEO Chris Oddleifson. "As a Massachusetts bank with more than a century of commitment to small businesses, we are aligned with the program’s key objective of promoting small business growth. Creditworthy businesses need loans to continue economic expansion, and we’re happy to be part of this worthy initiative."

Initiated in May 2011 by Grossman, the Small Business Banking Partnership aims to move deposits into smaller regional, community, and local banks that demonstrated leadership in providing capital to creditworthy small businesses to help them expand and create new jobs. The partnership reinvests Treasury deposits into community banks, who in turn promise to increase their small business loan portfolios. Participating in the Small Business Banking Partnership is an additional way of demonstrating Rockland Trust’s commitment to the small business market.

"The Small Business Banking Partnership has been a victory for the commonwealth, its community banks, and the small businesses that support our economy," said Grossman. "We’re thrilled that Rockland Trust is helping us put taxpayer money to its optimal use and assisting in our goal of creating jobs, opportunity, and prosperity throughout Massachusetts."