Local Connecticut bank provides SBA-backed export loan

6/28/2011

An SBA-backed loan was the catalyst behind mail processing machine manufacturer ID Mail System's expansion into foreign sales, according to the Hartford Courant.

Middleton, Connecticut-based Liberty Bank provided a loan backed by the Small Business Association that allowed ID Mail to begin selling its equipment overseas.

It's unusual for a local bank to make loans for foreign deals, Jeanne Hulit, the SBA's New England regional administrator, tells the news source.

"Most of the large, regional banks that provide trade finance don't usually have relationships with small businesses," said Hulit. "Liberty Bank has demonstrated how the SBA can help community banks through the process of providing export loans."

Due to Liberty's loan - as well as assistance from the U.S. Commerce Department - ID Mail now serves companies in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, France, Germany, Denmark, El Salvador, Colombia and Venezuela.

Since President Barack Obama announced his National Export Initiative in 2009, the Export-Import bank has added 1,000 new small business clients, and is on pace to back 5,000 small exporters by 2015, The Wall Street Journal Reports.

The export initiative aims to double U.S. exports by the end of 2014.