Articles & Insights

Piermont Bank are sizing the moment to help commercial real estate developers, owners and operators as big banks become timid in the shaky pandemic economy. “We’ve had a multitude of clients that were about to close deals with an existing bank,” said Robert Rynarzewski, head of commercial real estate at Piermont, “but the bank won’t return their phone calls. They’re leaving their clients at the closing table.”

Today there’s more uncertainty in the commercial real-estate market. Many lenders are telling clients they are “waiting to see how the market will play out.” Challenged by growing defaults, lenders are focused on tightening structures across their client base.

Reopening is on top of many business owners’ minds. We’ve seen throughout this pandemic the importance of stress testing your business and evaluate critical factors like cash flow, supply chains, sales channels, and business partner relationships before determining the best path forward. Our CEO Wendy Cai-Lee is quoted by The New York Times on how businesses can pivot to survive.

The current crisis has validated Piermont’s goal to serve small to medium-sized businesses with borrowing needs between $1 million and $10 million. “Because we have a very clean balance sheet, strong capital position and cash position, we are one of the few out there actively doing new lending.

Our CEO Wendy Cai-Lee spoke with Christina Sjahli on Her CEO Journey podcast: Reinventing How Banking Works for Entrepreneurs – The Journey of Wendy Cai-Lee.

My journey to build the first chartered bank in New York since 2008 (6:41)
Piermont Bank holistic approach to serving its clients (9:06)
Common struggles among women business owners (14:24)
The key takeaway of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) (19:46)
Strong capital and cash position set Piermont Bank to actively offering more loans (24:02)
The type of financing offers by Piermont Bank (25:43)
The underwriting process to apply for financing at Piermont Bank (26:55)
A list of questions business owners must answer before applying for financing (28:02)
How a finance expert can help answer the questions raised by the bank (29:25)
The type of communication a lender expects from a borrower during any crisis (31:25)
Guiding a client to stress test the financial situation of the business (33:53)
Advice from a lender perspective to small business owners during COVID-19 crisis (36:28)

Listen for the podcast at https://www.christinasjahli.com/herceojourneypodcast/episode/4725e7b2/reinventing-how-banking-works-for-entrepreneurs-the-journey-of-wendy-cai-lee