Businessman Starts Up A Small Business Bank

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Frustrated with the lack of service he received from a bank, Robert E. Laughlin, chief executive officer of a small Portland, Oreg., food equipment company, decided to start his own bank (see INC., May 1980, page 24). Now, three and a half years later, having rounded up 335 investors, Laughlin finally has a bank of, by, and for small business. What's more, he reports, 21 groups in 15 states are looking into similar proposals.

Laughlin's Stewardship Bank, located in Portland, opened March 13 of this year and immediately began making loans to small businesses at one full point below the national prime lending rate. Dick Wells, the bank's president, says 50% of the bank's deposits are on loan. "Lending the money is no problem," Laughlin comments. "Believe me, there's plenty of demand."

A majority of Stewardship's owners signed a statement supporting the bank's small business orientation and its pledge to provide "above-average assistance to qualified small business men and women." "We're totally devoted to the small business community," Laughlin says. And the small business community has taken notice of that commitment: Inquiries about the bank have come from as far away as New Jersey, Laughlin says.