Tom Smith
Senior Vice President of Business Banking, Brookline Bank
Industry experience: 30 years
Brookline Bank was named the top SBA 7(a) lender to manufacturers for 2024 by the Massachusetts SBA District Office. And Tom Smith is one of the people it can thank for that.
The 7(a) loan program is the Small Business Administration’s primary business loan program, providing loan guaranties to lenders that make it easier for them to offer financial help to small businesses without taking as much of a credit risk.
These loans can be used for acquiring, refinancing or improving real estate and buildings; short- and long-term working capital; refinancing current business debt; purchasing and installation of machinery and equipment; and more.
Smith is the senior vice president and is the leader of Brookline Bank’s business banking team. He’s been with the bank since 2015.
Q: What does this recognition mean to Brookline Bank and how does it reflect how the bank sets up its goals in terms of working with small business?
A: We did win it a couple of years ago as well. We have a very strong relationship with the SBA. They’ve actually kind of expanded their staffing. They’re doing a lot more out of the market, working one on one with banks. We build rapport with them, they come out to our team meetings. They offer educational sessions. The great thing is, it’s a great, strong partnership. There are a lot of banks out there that do work with the SBA, but we think it’s a huge opportunity for Brookline Bank to work with small businesses.
Q: How do you aim to help small businesses who can be dealing with increased costs elsewhere while also trying to fulfil their lending needs?
A: As we know, [the Federal Reserve’s benchmark short-term interest rate] has gone down a little bit so that’s actually helped in terms of borrowing-credit vehicles for our customers, but one of the things we try to do, and we’re very consistent with it, is we customize a lending product to a business. We really customize the lending vehicles to make sure it makes sense for the customer, not only from a product standpoint, but also from a dollar amount. The last thing we want to do is to have someone get in, and they’ve got this huge line they qualify but really, what’s the purpose of the line? Do you really need that much? So, we’re kind of making sure that we’re partnering with them to make sure to help their business, rather than to see them get into some trouble later on in the future.
Q: What about Brookline Bank makes businesses want to partner with you and allows you to be a top SBA lender?
A: One of the things that is most important is our reputation that Brookline Bank has built over the years. What we always look at from the bank’s perspective is: building our brand. Financial services is a very small community. I think Brookline Bank has a very solid reputation for clients coming first, for one-on-one relationships. I know all of my folks in my business banking group, they’ve got their customers on their cell phones. We talk to them very frequently and I think that’s one of the things that really sets us apart. We have servicing channels, like a 1-800 number. We’ve got a great online platform, but at the end of the day, if a customer says, “hey, you know what, I don’t feel like going through this,” they can call us. We got clients calling us all the time, and we’re very responsive and I think that’s really important. The bottom line is accountability to make sure that we’re helping to take their business to the next level.
Q: Overall, what do you think the small business lending appetite will be for 2025?
A: I think it’ll still be needed. I do think that small business customers out there and clients are maybe a little bit more cognizant of “Do I really need to borrow money or access my line of credit?” Because, again, it’s linked to that prime rate or whatever the rate it is tied to, it’s going to cost them a little bit more money. But in terms of lending at Brookline Bank, we’re actively lending. We look for opportunities, sound opportunities, to help businesses. So honestly, I think with the anticipation of rates going down, we’re very consistent with our products and with our rate margins and we always take that into consideration when we talk to clients.
Q: Obviously, when you do small business lending, that helps a bank show that it’s active in the community. How else does Brookline Bank try to do this important function?
A: Referencing back to the SBA, we will offer financial literacy. We’ve partnered with the SBA in an low-to-moderate-income community where we said, “Okay, how does a small business get credit? What are the fundamental questions or how do you prepare your business to get credit in these pockets of LMI opportunities?” We’re out about in the market and the feedback we got was phenomenal. People were saying, “okay, this was so helpful, so informative to be able to say I may not need a credit line now, but here’s how I get my business ready. Here are the key questions that banks are going to ask and how I can be prepared for that.” We’re coming up with what we are going to do for 2025. We’ve got some things in place, but that, to me, is one of the things that we pride ourselves on is being able to give back to the community.
Smith’ Five Favorite Pastimes
- Boating
- Swimming
- Working Out
- Traveling
- Cars
