December 08, 2008

Frank Goffreda, the president of Cross River Bank, sees the current crisis for banking giants as an opportunity for small community banks like his.Cross River Bank, which officially opened its doors in Teaneck on Election Day, specializes in small business lending and has seen a boom in business the likes of which Goffreda says he's never seen before in his 36 years in the banking industry.Typically, start-up banks -- which the banking industry calls "de novos," or Latin for "from the beginning" -- field between $1 million and $2 million in loan requests per month.

"At our loan committee meetings, we're looking at approximately $7 million a week" in loan requests, said Goffreda, 58. "That is a significant amount of loan activity. A lot of the larger banks have exited the lending field entirely. I've never seen anything like it, in terms of the volume of requests we've been getting and the opportunities associated with those requests.One big reason: The turmoil that has beset financial giants like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and Wachovia has left a void in many communities. And small local banks are stepping in to bridge that gap with loans designed to accommodate local businessmen and residents.