Small Business , Big Bank

Do They Want Our Business or Not?

By Jay Goltz

I was watching TV the other night when an ad came on for Bank of America. It had a business banker — an actor, I assume — professing his dedication to small business. Now, I’m a Cubs fan, so I’m used to wanting to throw a shoe at the television. But this was worse; the Cubs at least try (I think).

Lots of the big banks do this, but Bank of America is the bank that bought out my local business bank, LaSalle, a couple of years ago. Many of the people I know in small business had used the bank for years. After Bank of America arrived, the old LaSalle went from being the bank for small business to being the bank for big small business. The term small business can refer to a $200,000 business — or a $200 million business. Overnight, the rules changed, the services changed, and the attitude changed. So did many of the employees, from the president down.

My own realization that I needed to change banks started with a little change — quarters, dimes, and nickels to be exact. I have a soda machine that we take the change from every couple of weeks. We had been taking it to the LaSalle branch down the street to have it counted in a machine. After the buyout, we were told the machine was broken. Really? They said we could leave the bag of change, and they would send it downtown to the main bank. We could then look for the credit on our bank statement. I later mentioned this to a friend of mine who works at a different Bank of America branch. He said he was at a meeting at which the branch managers were told to tell customers that the change machines were broken.