India Post News Service
SAN FRANCISCO: Mission National Bank (MNB) held its Eighth Annual Real Estate Luncheon at the Maharani restaurant in San Francisco on May 16. With its close ties to the Indo-American community in general and AAHOA (Asian American Hotel Owners Association) in particular, MNB's new CEO J. David Joves said that there will not be much change to the current model whose basic principle is client 'access to the decision makers' at the bank. MNB is mainly based in the Bay Area.
With assets of $125 million, they have recently started a SBA (Small Business) division in which they became a preferred lender in 9 months rather than the usual 2 years. MNB, which is based out of the San Francisco Mission area, said that the people in the Mission may need to be walked through the business loan process and this dovetails with the bank's profile of a community bank. MNB's niche includes hotel owners, gas stations and other small businesses.
They have old ties with AAHOA and reconnect with them often to determine any new factors, risks etc. in the hotel industry. Mukesh Mowji, 2006 AAHOA Chairman, was the guest speaker. He gave an inspired speech about the history of Indo- American hoteliers and how some of the earliest such hotels were in San Francisco. AAHOA has more than 8,000 members who own more than 22,000 hotels which is around 37 percent of all US hotel properties.
He also talked about opportunities in India. India as a whole has fewer hotel rooms than Orlando or Shanghai, China alone. Ratilal Patel talked about the Jalaram/ MNB scholarship for students in South Gujarat. He was followed by Richard Stratton of Hanson Bridgett LLP, who said that it was "wonderful to be here as guests of MNB who really understand our community". Navin Patel said that "MNB is pro- Indian and very easy to work with.
They recently did a loan with MNB for Hampton Inn, SF which was easily executed with no time wasted." With such confidence in the bank, the continued relationship between MNB and the Indo-American business community seems guaranteed.
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