Bank and credit union executives frequently laud their employees when talking about how their institution has succeeded in a particular market or improved the bottom line.


The common refrain is putting in place the right people.


That often refers directly to experienced, well-connected commercial loan officers. Such loan officers are becoming more difficult to find, they say, and competition to attract and retain them is fierce.


Everybody knows who they are, says Peter Stanton, chairman and CEO of Washington Trust Bank, of Spokane. You do the best you can to take care of your folks and keep them. Im sure people get offers all the time. I know they do.


Randy Fewel, president and CEO of Spokane-based Inland Northwest Bank, says large, national banks these days often dont have the loan-officer training programs they once had. Also, in many cases, those banks have partitioned their loan departments so that seasoned people handle businesses of a size that will borrow $10 million or more at a time, while smaller loans are handled by business-development specialists, who bring in potential borrowers but send loan applications to others at the bank for credit analysis and a loan decision.


In the past, Fewel says, small community banks could hire well-trained people away from bigger banks, but thats getting more difficult to do because there are fewer such people available and they are accustomed to handling loans that are larger than what a bank the size of Inland Northwest typically would handle. Business-development specialists are more common, but a small bank also needs seasoned commercial loan officers who can bring business in the door and analyze the numbers, he says.


There isnt a good cadre of junior lenders out there right now, Fewel says.


A couple of the larger Spokane-area credit unions have stepped up commercial lending efforts in recent years and have joined in the competition to hire the right people.


Global Credit Union, of Spokane, opened a business member services center in downtown Spokane in late 2003 as a way to give its commercial lending department a higher profile and to generate more commercial loans.


Spokane Teachers Credit Union, of Spokane, started a commercial lending department in early 2003, opening a commercial lending office on the periphery of downtown.


Both Global and Spokane Teachers hired commercial lenders away from banks here.


Mary Starkey, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Global, says that credit union recruited through advertising and word-of-mouth. Laura Wood, director of human resources at Teachers, says the credit union used a headhunter to recruit.


Fewel says he has used an executive-search company to find commercial lenders in recent years, something he had resisted doing previously. The fee for such a service typically is equivalent to 30 percent of the new hires annual salary. Fewel says a good commercial lender might have a base salary of between $60,000 and $90,000, so the headhunters fee might be as much as $30,000.


If they find a good person, though, its worth it, he says.


Going where the people are


In some cases, banks have built a presence in a new market around one or more experienced people.


Stanton says Washington Trust has done that in a number of markets it has entered in recent years by starting with one or two well-connected people in those markets who had been dissatisfied with their jobs at other banks.


Those markets include Seattle, Tri-Cities, Boise, and most recently, Portland.


Washington Trust entered the Seattle market four years ago with one person who had been an executive at The Commerce Bank of Washington, Stanton says. Starting with that one person, the Spokane bank built a presence on the West Side by specializing in commercial lending, private banking, and trusts.


Late last year, the bank snagged a Washington Mutual Bank commercial lending team after Washington Mutual drastically cut its commercial lending division. Now, Washington Trust has a total of 30 employees in offices in downtown Seattle and Bellevue.


The Spokane bank scored a similar coup in Portland by attracting other experienced former Washington Mutual lenders.


Competition for those bankers in Seattle and Portland was rigorous, Stanton says, but Washington Trust was able to promote its focus on commercial lending and its stabilitythe bank hasnt been subjected to a merger in its 110 years in existence.


It clearly wasnt just about the money, Stanton says. We were competitive, but I dont think we were the highest bidder.


Inland Northwest Bank is building a presence around a couple of lenders in Walla Walla, Wash. The bank had been looking for a loan officer to work in Spokane when it came across an experienced banker in Walla Walla. He wasnt interested in relocating to Spokane, but suggested that the bank might be interested in doing business in Walla Walla.


Fewel says the bank attracted another lending officer there, opened a commercial lending office in downtown Walla Walla in January, and now plans to open a full-service branch there this spring.


Finding others


Branch managers can be hard to find in some instances as well. Nancy Harter, vice president of human resources at Spokane-based Numerica Credit Union, says the organization opened a branch in the Tri-Cities late last year and was successful in securing loan officers, but still is searching for a branch manager. She says the credit union is looking for someone who knows the market, the competition, and already has established contacts there.


You lose a lot of that when you bring someone in from someplace else, Harter says.


Some stress the importance of finding the right people for bank teller positions as well. Wood, of Spokane Teachers Credit Union, says the skill set for a teller isnt hard to find. A lot of people view becoming a bank teller as a logical next step after working in retail stores.


Finding a person who is the best fit for the organization, however, can take some sifting through job candidates.


They have to buy into our vision and our culture, she says. You have to be passionate about what we do here.