Banking with a punch
While she may not wear a pair of boxing gloves in the office, April Volk’s Small Business Administration’s 2008 Financial Champion of the Year Award was a compliment to the long-time banker, considering the hundreds nominated for the SBA’s regional designation. She received her award at the SBA reception at the Con Edison building on Irving Place in Manhattan on April 17.
Volk, who began her banking career with KeyBank in 1982 and then left, returned to her “roots” two years ago and is now acting as Key’s vice president and senior business banking relationship manager at its Wall Street location in Kingston.
Recognition of her work was a “pleasant surprise for us,” said Arnaldo Sehwerert, the regional director for Kingston’s Small Business Development Center, who works closely with Volk. “There are thousands of people nominated in the New York/Hudson Valley’s SBA region each year, and the fact that April was chosen really reflects on the hard work she has done to help her business clients. She really goes the extra mile for the people who come through our doors and need help, either with a startup or an expansion.”
Volk said while there has been a slowdown in the market overall, Key has been careful to make good choices when it comes to financing new and existing business. “Here in Ulster, we have seen some companies take advantage of the market as it is today. Others are struggling, much like everyone else – health care increases, gasoline prices and increases in petroleum are affecting everyone, not just businesses. For businesses whose sales have become stagnant because people have stopped spending, they are trying to control their expenses. Service industries are feeling the pinch the most.” Some companies, said Volk, will lose an employee and not hire to fill the slot, putting more of the burden on other employees. It’s not a matter of choice, however. In many cases, she said; it’s a matter of survival.
How are interest rates affecting Volk’s customers? “Interest rate cuts compress our margins, and we lend based on the cost of funds – on the flip side, for customers in good financial condition, it reduces their cost of funding.”
Volk guesstimated that 10 percent of her customers are struggling with the recession. “It’s hard to generalize, because we cover so many different industries. The military and local agricultural companies are doing well. Restaurants and other service industries have definitely seen a slowdown.”
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