Priya Jaiswal has spent her career at the intersection of banking strategy and execution, guiding commercial and small-business teams through market entries, portfolio growth, and SBA-led succession. Drawing on hands-on experience across regions and product sets, she lays out how disciplined hiring, diagnostic-driven consultative selling, and integrated services can scale responsibly—especially as owners eye real estate and generational transitions. In this conversation, she unpacks Southeast expansion, team design in growth cities, SBA momentum, and the proprietary tools that sharpen targeting, shorten cycles, and deepen relationships.
You said you’ll hire at least a dozen bankers in the Southeast within six months, in states without branches. Which two states are first, and what milestones will trigger the next hires? Can you share a past market-entry playbook and the first 90-day steps?
We’ll start in Florida and Georgia, both because of concentrated middle-market corridors and an immediate path to meaningful pipelines without a physical branch footprint. The first wave is at least a dozen hires, paced by milestones like validated top-50 prospect engagement, signed treasury pilots, and the first owner-occupied real estate term sheets out the door. Our playbook mirrors what worked when we expanded in Dallas and Houston: day-one segmentation by revenue bands of $2.5 million to $50 million, a diagnostic-led first meeting, and swift introduction of treasury, merchant, and card partners. In the first 90 days, we set territory maps, run the proprietary questionnaire with priority prospects, build a referral lattice with CPAs and attorneys, and hold weekly pipeline scrums to move opportunities from “interest” to documented next steps.
You added a second team in Charlotte and Las Vegas and a fourth in Chicago. What specific growth signals pushed those choices, and how do staffing ratios differ by city? Walk me through one team’s first quarter: targets, outreach cadence, and close rates.
We followed demand indicators: robust formation of $2.5 million–$10 million revenue firms in Charlotte, sustained hospitality and services turnover in Las Vegas, and dense successor-owner activity in Chicago. Those signals, plus healthy adoption of treasury and merchant services, justified a second team in Charlotte and Las Vegas and a fourth in Chicago. Staffing ratios are tuned to complexity—Chicago leans heavier on treasury and credit analysts, while Charlotte gets more relationship managers out front. In a first quarter, the team sets a call plan anchored by the internal data tool, runs the diagnostic on initial meetings, and sequences follow-ups to propose integrated packages; we track conversion from diagnostic to proposal and proposal to close, with weekly huddles to tighten outreach and credit packaging.
In Houston, you hired four bankers and plan two more. What roles do those first six cover, and how do you sequence their books of business? Tell a story about the first three client wins and the metrics you used to judge them.
The first four are relationship coverage, with two more coming in credit and treasury. We assign books by industry clusters and property ownership characteristics surfaced by our internal data, then layer in prospects with owner-occupied real estate needs. The early wins included a distributor purchasing its facility with a blend of conventional and owner-occupied real estate financing, a services firm adopting integrated treasury and merchant solutions, and a contractor initiating an SBA pathway ahead of a succession event. We judged success on time to term sheet, treasury attach, and whether the diagnostic uncovered risk or efficiency gaps that we could close.
You’ve hired about 250 people into new roles this year. Which profiles performed best, and what onboarding modules directly moved revenue? Share the timeline from offer to first deal funded, and the KPIs you monitor weekly.
The strongest performers pair consultative selling with comfort in treasury, merchant processing, and credit structuring—people who can lead a holistic conversation, not just place a loan. Onboarding that moved revenue fastest centered on the diagnostic, the internal prospecting tool, and scenario-based credit packaging for owner-occupied real estate and SBA. We compress the timeline by aligning credit partners early and inviting product specialists into first meetings; that keeps momentum from offer acceptance through the first set of funded solutions. Weekly, we monitor diagnostic completions, proposals generated, cross-sell depth across cards, merchant, treasury, and FX, and progression of deals through credit milestones.
Your unit serves companies with $2.5M–$50M in revenue, with 1,200 employees for 75,000 clients. How do you segment service levels across that band, and where do bottlenecks show up? Give examples with response-time targets and portfolio sizes per banker.
We segment by complexity and money movement, not just revenue. Simpler, single-entity borrowers get streamlined coverage; multi-entity or property-owning clients receive more treasury and credit resources up front. With 1,200 employees serving about 75,000 clients, we anchor service standards around rapid response and scheduled reviews, and we flex support where clients hold both core operating accounts and investment real estate. Bottlenecks most often appear at documentation and implementation for treasury; we pre-brief clients during the diagnostic to accelerate onboarding and guard against slowdowns.
Consumer and business banking is about 32% of $21.3B year-to-date revenue. What levers most influenced that share this year, and which ones will you pull next? Break down two campaigns, their conversion math, and the lift they delivered.
Two levers mattered: integrated delivery—cards, merchant, treasury, and wealth—and targeted prospecting using our internal data tool. One campaign focused on property-owning operators, leading with owner-occupied real estate paired with treasury; another targeted fast-growing firms primed for merchant and card optimization. We optimized each sequence with the diagnostic first, solution mapping second, and term sheets last to keep trust high and friction low. The mix helped sustain the segment’s contribution at about 32% of $21.3 billion year-to-date revenue, and we’ll continue to deepen that by expanding Southeast coverage and sharpening real estate-linked outreach.
You provide conventional financing, owner-occupied real estate, and SBA loans. How do you decide the right structure when a client wants to buy their building and a second property? Share the underwriting steps, covenants used, and a real deal’s timeline.
We begin with cash flow from the operating company and the stability of tenancy. If the business will occupy the primary building, we prioritize owner-occupied real estate terms there and consider conventional or SBA options for the second property based on leverage tolerance and seasoning. Underwriting walks through the diagnostic findings, global cash flow, rent coverage, and liquidity, and we set covenants to protect operating cash—think periodic reporting, minimum liquidity, and triggers tied to performance. Timelines are managed by sequencing appraisals and environmental work early, which keeps decisioning tight and aligns closing when the client is ready to move.
You emphasize integrated services—cards, merchant processing, treasury, FX, wealth. What’s the cross-sell journey from first meeting to signed mandates? Walk me through one client’s bundle, pricing trade-offs, and the results they saw in cash flow and risk.
We start with the diagnostic to frame money movement pain points, then co-design a bundle that solves for operating cash, receivables speed, and payments control. Treasury sits at the center, with merchant and cards tightening the working-capital cycle, and FX or wealth introduced when cross-border or liquidity planning shows up. In one case, a multi-site operator paired treasury controls with merchant and corporate cards; we aligned pricing by linking fees to usage and relationship breadth, trading a slightly lower headline rate for deeper share-of-wallet. The result was faster cash application, reduced manual risk, and a cleaner month-end close that freed leadership to focus on growth.
You built a proprietary diagnostic tool with a fintech, using a questionnaire on money movement and efficiency. What are the top five questions that reveal hidden pain, and how do you score them? Describe a client case where the diagnostics flipped a “no” to “yes.”
The most revealing questions probe receivables timing, payment controls, reconciliation effort, fraud incidents, and how data flows between systems. We score along efficiency and risk dimensions, then convert findings into a simple roadmap so the client sees where time, money, or control is leaking. One prospect initially said they were fine; the diagnostic surfaced reconciliation delays and fraud-exposure gaps they hadn’t quantified. When we returned with clear fixes—treasury tools, card controls, and merchant integration—the conversation shifted from “no” to “let’s move,” because the path to efficiency and risk reduction was undeniable.
You mentioned the diagnostic boosted win rates over two years. By how much, and in which industries was the lift strongest? Share before-and-after metrics on cycle time, product depth per client, and fraud reduction outcomes.
Since we introduced it nearly two years ago, win rates improved materially, especially where money movement complexity is high—multi-location services, distributors, and owner-operators with property. The key change was trust: rather than pitching products, we solved specific workflow issues clients could feel in their day-to-day. We saw faster cycles from first meeting to proposal and a clearer path to multi-product adoption, with clients embracing treasury, merchant, and cards in one motion. The most gratifying outcome was tighter controls that lowered fraud risk while giving finance teams back hours each month.
Your internal data tool sorts prospects by sales size, industry, and property ownership. How does a banker turn that into a weekly call plan and a 30-60-90 pipeline? Give a step-by-step example with target counts and follow-up scripts.
We start by filtering for property-owning operators in the $2.5 million–$50 million band, then stack-rank by industry and urgency signals. Each week, bankers build a call plan tied to those filters, schedule diagnostic-led meetings, and log next steps that move deals through education, solution design, and credit. The 30-60-90 view is a living pipeline: early-stage prospects receive insights and tools; mid-stage see bundled proposals; late-stage advance through documentation with treasury and credit at the table. Follow-ups are consultative—“Here’s what we heard, here’s the efficiency and risk story, and here’s the sequence to realize it”—so the client always knows why it matters.
SBA lending doubled in two years, hitting $871.2M in 7(a) for FY2025, up 23%. What fueled that growth, and how do you control loss ratios while scaling? Walk me through a succession deal—structure, equity injection, seller note, and post-close support.
Growth came from disciplined client selection, pairing SBA with integrated services, and making SBA an entry point for owners who wouldn’t otherwise access capital. With SBA doubling in the past two years and 7(a) totaling $871.2 million, up 23%, we’ve kept loss ratios attractive by focusing on strong operators and making sure structures fit real cash flow. In a typical succession, the buyer is prepared with the diagnostic, we align an SBA 7(a) structure, balance equity from the buyer with a seller component, and time the transition so operations keep humming. Post-close, treasury and card controls are switched on, and we schedule early check-ins to protect both the business and the relationship.
You see more owners nearing retirement, sometimes without heirs in the business. How do you spot viable internal buyers and prepare them for acquisition financing? Share two succession paths—sale to a peer and a management buyout—with outcomes and lessons.
Viable internal buyers show operational command, a grasp of cash flow, and a willingness to prepare well before a transaction. We use the diagnostic to map what they’ll inherit—receivables, controls, and real estate—then tailor financing that won’t starve the business. In one path, an owner sold to a peer and kept the transition smooth by aligning treasury and payments on day one; in another, a management buyout succeeded because we synchronized SBA financing with operational milestones. The lesson is to start early and build confidence with transparency and the right tools.
For clients diversifying into investment real estate, how do you balance exposure between their core business and new properties? Outline a risk framework, stress tests you run, and a real example where you adjusted terms to protect cash flow.
We stress test the operating company first, then layer property performance—vacancy, lease rollover, and expense shocks—on top of global cash flow. The framework favors stability: owner-occupied assets with clearer visibility come first; investment assets are paced to avoid overextending the business. In practice, we adjusted terms by sequencing acquisitions and tightening covenants tied to liquidity and reporting, which kept operating cash intact. The client still diversified, but on a cadence that respected the core franchise.
Looking at Dallas, Houston, and the Southeast expansion, what early warning signs tell you a market plan needs a course correction? Tell a story about a pivot you made, the signals you tracked, and the fixes that got performance back on plan.
We watch engagement quality, diagnostic-to-proposal conversion, and whether treasury and merchant attach early. In one market, we saw plenty of first meetings but thin diagnostic completions, which foretold slower revenue. The pivot was simple: bring product specialists into first calls and reframe outreach around efficiency and risk, not just credit. Within a quarter, proposals aligned better with client pain, and we were back on plan with healthier pipelines.
You’re entering Southeast states without branches, including Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina. How will you support implementation and service without legacy infrastructure, and what are the first client experiences you want to deliver?
We’ll lean on centralized onboarding, digital treasury implementations, and field specialists who can be on-site when it matters most. The first experience is a consultative diagnostic that turns into a tailored bundle—treasury, merchant, cards, and, where relevant, credit for owner-occupied real estate or SBA. We support clients with clear timelines and proactive communication so they feel the benefit before the ink dries. Without branches, the test is whether we save them time and reduce risk from day one—and we will.
How do you keep culture tight across 1,200 employees as you scale teams and add a fourth or second team in markets like Chicago, Charlotte, and Las Vegas?
Culture scales when the playbook is clear and the mission is practical: help clients move money efficiently, fund growth responsibly, and cut fraud risk. We standardize the diagnostic and pipeline rhythm, but we also localize outreach so teams speak the market’s language. Leaders coach to behaviors we can see—pre-call plans, clean handoffs to product partners, and thoughtful credit narratives. The result is consistency without rigidity, which is exactly what clients feel in every meeting.
What is your forecast for SBA lending?
I expect SBA to remain a vital on-ramp for new owners and a graceful exit path for those ready to retire. With lending having doubled over the past two years and 7(a) volume at $871.2 million, up 23%, the opportunity is to keep pairing SBA with treasury and payments so new owners stabilize quickly. Succession will keep driving demand as more founders step back, and disciplined selection will keep loss ratios where shareholders feel confident. The next leg of growth will come from the very markets we’re entering now, where SBA can be the first handshake that becomes a full relationship.
