Delaware mortgage loan rate

NYBDC offers loan incentives for rural banks

SYRACUSE-The New York Business Development Corp. (NYBDC) has begun offering incentives for bankers in 12 rural counties to make more small-business loans. Under its "NYBDC-Business New York" program, NYBDC will pay the "first-mortgage" fees for banks that partner with the corporation to write Small Business Administration (SBA) 504 loans. The 504 program offers long-term, low-interest loans to small businesses for land, buildings, equipment, or capital needs. NYBDC is the state's largest SBA 504 lender and the nation's sixth-largest 504 lender.

"We want to help small businesses grow and expand in these underserved areas," says Robert Lazar, president of NYBDC.

The SBA 504 program allows borrowers to make smaller downpayments on real estate and offers a 20-year, fixed-rate second mortgage. The bank that holds the first mortgage must pay a fee to the SBA in exchange for a senior-mortgage position. The NYBDCBusiness, New York Program will pay this fee for lenders in Cayuga, Chemung, Chenango, Columbia, Delaware, Fulton, Genesee, Herkimer, Montgomery, Schuyler, Tioga, and Wyoming counties.

NYBDC, says Lazar, plans to market the program through banks, economic-development officials, and chambers of commerce in the counties. He plans to work with banks, partnering on loans, and also to reach companies that may not fit the loans profile of most banks.

"We want to help the companies that aren't being helped by the banks," says Lazar.

In August, NYBDC started a new program targeting rural and economically depressed areas of the Mohawk Valley. The program marked the first time NYBDC began marketing its loans to nonbankers. During its 2002 fiscal year, NYBDC increased its under$150,000-loan-activity by 20 percent. The corporation approved $110 million worth of loans, a 22-percent increase over the previous year, and disbursed $69 million, a 30-percent increase over fiscal 2001. NYBDC's fiscal year ends Sept. 30, following the SBA's fiscal calendar.

The 2002 fiscal year brought NYBDC $7.6 million in interest income, down from $8 million during the previous year. Despite loan losses of $842,493, NYBDC posted a pre-tax profit of $1,005,125, The corporations 2002 tax provision allocates $409,362 toward federal, state, and local taxes.

Created by the legislature in 1955, NYBDC is a private corporation funded by 160 banks and financial institutions across the state. NYBDC is tile parent company of the NYBDC Capital Corp., Empire State Certified Development Corp., and the Statewide Zone Capital Corp. of New York. NYBDC's total loan portfolio is $345 million.