Business Banking has made an important contribution to AmSouth’s success, and doubling that contribution is a key component to our three-year plan.

Joell Pollio has found that small businesses are a prime market for a bank built on the power of the relationship. For most small business owners, their company is a very large part of their life. It only makes sense that they would want a bank that can serve their business’s financial needs just as expertly as it takes care of their personal finances.

On a per-branch basis, deposits have grown more than 64 percent per year and loans grew 41 percent per year.

In 2000, our Business Loan Center made same-day decisions on more than 98 percent of loans for less than $50,000. We already have strong products and superior service. Building on that success is critical.

To double Business Banking’s contribution, we plan to:

The power of the Business Banking initiative lies in our proven success. One out of four small businesses in our markets banks with AmSouth. In fact, we rank second among Southeastern regional banks in small business lending.

Joell Pollio and bankers like her throughout our system are the reason for that success. Every day they are on the branch frontlines, forging strong relationships with business owners in their communities and working with others in the branches to meet the owner’s personal banking needs. In the past two years, Business Banking has boomed in our branches, the main method for delivering these services and products.

• Grow our Business Banking customer base.
  
• Increase the average number of products we sell to each business.
  
• Increase deposits.
  
• Increase loans.

We’ll do this by adding business bankers in our high-growth markets and recruiting top performers in each area. We’ll also make the most of our branch network by continuing sales training and increasing product training.

These are aggressive goals, as AmSouth’s goals usually are, but we have equally aggressive strategies for achieving them and bankers who care about their customers’ businesses as much as the customers do.