Last week Richard Bradshaw became president of specialized lending at United Community Bank (UCB).
“I had a good position at TD Bank, but this role provides me with broader responsibilities across a more strategic role,” Bradshaw said. He was previously head of Small Business Administration (SBA) programs at TD Bank since 2010.
TD Bank has yet to name Bradshaw’s successor. A spokesperson said in a written response, “TD Bank has long been a leader in SBA lending, consistently making steady increases in dollar and loan volume, and piloting new SBA programs. We are currently interviewing candidates for the role of head of SBA to continue to grow our SBA business.”
Bradshaw will head the SBA lending program at UCB in addition to overseeing all lines of commercial lending across the bank’s footprint. Bradshaw was recruited to UCB by president Lynn Harton. Harton had hired Bradshaw to work with SBA lending at Carolina First five years ago.
“Rich and I have always shared the same vision for SBA lending,” Harton said. “Done correctly, SBA lending provides significant advantages to our customers by offering extended terms and lower payments than they could otherwise obtain. There are parts of SBA lending that can be very technical; however, Rich knows how to make the technicalities transparent to our customers. His expertise is second to none.”
Bradshaw said the bank aims to expand SBA lending within UCB’s current footprint and also expand its program nationally. The national program will lend in targeted industries: franchises, manufacturers and professional services, which have low risk of default.
“Within the footprint, we will be lending in a much broader sense, but we will be focusing more on the needs of small biz within in the communities we support. I would not have come over if that weren’t the case,” Bradshaw said. The same aforementioned industries will be attractive, but the focus will be on case-by-case considerations.
He has begun recruiting staff and expects to take on about 20 new people in the first year, some of whom will be based in Greenville.
Bradshaw has specialized in SBA lending since 1995. Carolina First became and remained the No. 1 SBA lender in the state under his tenure before it was acquired by TD Bank. He then led TD to become the seventh-largest SBA lender in the nation. He had previously served as president at UPS Capital Business Credit in Atlanta, where, under his direction, the bank tripled SBA origination volume during the SBA’s 2008 fiscal year.
In the past 20 years, he said the most significant changes to the program have been times when it was completely shut down, and another time when loan sizes were restricted to $500,000 and no refinancing. Then the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act increased that limit to $5 million and changed the definition of a small business, thereby doubling the number of businesses that could receive the loans.
