March 11 , 2021 | Stamford, CT — U.S. community and regional banks outperformed the nation’s biggest banks during the COVID-19 crisis by their responsiveness for federal PPP loans approvals and delivering on high-touch service expectations.

Today, Greenwich Associates, the leading global provider of data, analytics and insights to the financial services industry, announced it is expanding its unit dedicated to helping these essential institutions thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.

The approximately 5,000 community banks in the U.S. fund 60% of small business loans during “normal” times. Community and regional banks (banks with less than $30 billion in assets) approved roughly the same share of loans in the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program last year. Recognizing both this essential role and the mounting pressures that are shrinking the number of community and regional banks in the U.S., Greenwich Associates is expanding its practice devoted to supporting community banks.

“Community and mid-sized banks bring unique benefits to the communities where they operate, particularly to the small businesses that are so critical to the U.S. economy,” said Jacqueline Vose, Greenwich Associates Head of Community Banking. “Our mission is to help these banks achieve growth in an environment of digital transformation, regulatory pressures and intense competition from larger banks.”

Greenwich Associates offers the industry’s most comprehensive suite of business insight tools for Community Commercial Banking leaders. These tools span:

• Customer Experience — Holistic customer experience programs that capture customer feedback, benchmark to industry standards and create actionable data that support business outcomes. 
• Competitor Benchmarks — Competitor-level trends on market share, satisfaction and loyalty levels, product usage, RM performance, operational performance, and image/brand perception.
• Client Prospecting — Prospect scoring and company-specific insights and “point of entry” for likely product needs based on wallet and product propensity data combined with attrition risk and growth expectations.
• Digital Transformation — Benchmarks on digital best practices across front, middle and back office to understand strengths, gaps and investment priorities to meet rising competitive CX needs in digital channels, payments, digital RM enablement, credit automation and analytics, onboarding, and KYC.

“Greenwich Associates data shows that community and mid-sized banks outperformed bigger rivals from a service standpoint during one of the most challenging periods for small businesses in history,” says Steve Busby, Greenwich Associates President. “We are proud to be in position to help support and enable the community banks that serve such a vital part of the U.S. economy.”