Independent Banker - July 2021 - 73

One community bank's PPP pivot
First Home Bank doubled down on Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lending, dedicating its entire SBA
lending division and dozens of other employees to delivering much-needed funds to businesses. The
result? More than $1.2 billion in PPP loans. By William Atkinson
ommunity banks have always
had a strong reputation when
it comes to being there for their
communities, and they upheld that
commitment during the pandemic.
One shining example of this is First
Home Bank in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The $1.7 billion-asset community
bank went all in on the Paycheck
Protection Program (PPP) to the tune
of $1.2 billion in loans to local small
businesses and other customers.
Its leaders say it was an absolutely
unprecedented time for First Home
Bank and CreditBench, its Small
Business Administration (SBA)
lending division.
" Friday, April 2, 2021, was the
one-year anniversary date of a year
like no other in my 30-plus years
of SBA lending, " says Thomas G.
Zernick, First Home Bank's executive
vice president and president of SBA
lending division, and president
of CreditBench.
In April 2020, First Home Bank
decided to focus CreditBench's
efforts on making PPP loans. And it
succeeded-big time. The community
bank delivered $877 million in PPP
Name:
First Home Bank
Location:
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Assets:
$1.7 billion
C
" Every division in
our bank jumped
into PPP [lending],
including our CEO,
Anthony Leo, who
worked with all of
us on a daily basis. "
-THOMAS G. ZERNICK,
FIRST HOME BANK
loans to nearly 9,000 PPP clients
in the first round, keeping wages
flowing to more than 100,000
workers. The momentum continued
into round two. As of April 6, 2021,
the bank was responsible for more
than $300 million in PPP loans to an
additional 3,229 clients.
How did First Home Bank achieve
such success with the program? " We
were fortunate to have a high-volume
SBA 7(a) platform that was capable
of closing 1,000-plus SBA 7(a) loans
a year, " Zernick says. However,
the bank made a strategic decision
to temporarily suspend its 7(a)
production to pivot 100% to the PPP,
as the team quickly realized that local
businesses were starving for capital
and funds to make payroll. " We knew
we had to be socially responsible
servants, " he adds.
CreditBench leveraged its
60-member team to tackle the
mission of saving thousands of
businesses in the area. The division
also enlisted about 60 other
employees to help it process the
thousands of PPP applications.
" Every division in our bank jumped
into PPP, " Zernick says, " including
our CEO, Anthony Leo, who worked
with all of us on a daily basis. "
Building the PPP army
In terms of technology, the
community bank's PPP pivot was
relatively seamless because of its
expertise in SBA lending. " We
were already a top ten SBA 7(a)
lender nationally, so we were used
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