TVA, Cocke County Banks Partner to Help Local Businesses
June 17, 2003
NEWPORT, Tenn. — Four Cocke County banks have agreed to join TVA’s Valley Coalition, which was created to promote the growth and expansion of minority-owned, women-owned, and socially and economically disadvantaged businesses.
National Bank of Tennessee, Newport Federal Bank, Cocke County Bank, and U.S. Bank signed memoranda of understanding with TVA at the Newport-Cocke County Economic Development Commission meeting Tuesday, June 17.
The Valley Coalition is a public-private partnership of TVA and financial institutions in the Tennessee Valley. By working together and sharing risks, TVA and participating lenders make more money available for loans, provide broader access to capital, and build the capacity of technical resource providers to help ensure the success of coalition business participants.
“By providing capital and other business resources to new and expanding companies, our new coalition partners are helping support the creation of jobs in Cocke County and East Tennessee,” said TVA’s Senior Vice President of Economic Development, John Bradley.
TVA
and participating lenders also offer technical and managerial assistance,
credit analysis, and underwriting services to Valley businesses to better
position them for economic growth and success.
Businesses eligible for loans from the coalition include established,
early-stage, and start-up businesses with growth potential. Loan requests
are made through
participating lenders and are evaluated based on a project’s financial
viability, management quality, community impact, number of jobs created,
and investment funds leveraged.
National Bank of Tennessee is headquartered and has five branches in Newport, with an additional branch in Greeneville. Newport Federal Bank is headquartered in Newport, where it also has three branch offices. Greeneville is the headquarters of Cocke County Bank, a division of Greene County Bank, which has 27 branches from Chattanooga to Bristol. U.S. Bank is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and has more than 2,000 banking offices in East Tennessee locations, including Newport, White Pine, Jefferson City, Rogersville, Church Hill, Kingston, and Rockwood.
Since the creation of the coalition, TVA has invested more than $3.7 million to support 15 projects. TVA’s investment has leveraged an additional $13.7 million from partnership lenders and helped create more than 480 jobs.
TVA is the nation’s largest public power producer and is completely self-financed. TVA provides power to large industries and 158 power distributors that serve 8.3 million consumers in seven southeastern states.
Media Contact:
Lucha Ramey, Knoxville (865-632-8385) or TVA News Bureau, Knoxville (865-632-6000)
