NEW YORK, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Amalgamated Bank today announced that it has formed Amalgamated Business Credit, a New York-based unit of the Bank's Commercial Banking Division that will provide asset-based financing to middle market companies. The new group - which will be under the direction of Robert Love, a veteran asset-based lending professional - will have a national platform for financing companies with revenues of $50 million to $200 million.

"The launch of Amalgamated Business Credit is the latest step in the program aimed at filling out our suite of commercial lending capabilities," said Derrick D. Cephas, Amalgamated's President and Chief Executive Officer. "This new group complements Amalgamated Capital, which was formed last September, and our Middle Market and Commercial Real Estate Finance divisions. With this array of lending and financing services, we are now able to serve a full range of financing needs for middle market companies.

"Robert Love has been appointed Executive Vice President and Director of Amalgamated Business Credit," Mr. Cephas continued. "Bob has 20 years of experience in asset-based lending and has worked in every facet of the business from audit staff and underwriting to account management and origination. During the last 10 years - while at GE Commercial Finance, CIT and Royal Bank of Scotland - he was responsible for the origination of more than $2 billion in asset-based lending transactions. With his strong credit skills, origination experience and innovative style, he is one of the rising young leaders in the industry today and an ideal person to build and manage this business for Amalgamated Bank."

"This is an exciting opportunity for us," Mr. Love said. "We are one of the very few commercial bank entrants in the last five to ten years in New York's asset-based lending arena, a market that has undergone significant retrenchment over the past few years. Our financing will be marked by the fact that we are national in scope and will cover a wide range of industries, by our professionalism, by our ability to respond rapidly, and by flexibility with respect to the types of transactions we will consider. Initially, we will be building out a team of asset-based professionals and setting up the collateral-monitoring and other systems that are needed for asset-based lending. Our typical transaction will be $5 million to $15 million. The funding will be used primarily for seasonal working capital needs, business expansion, acquisitions, turnarounds and re-financings. The financings will be collateralized by the borrower's accounts receivable, inventory, machinery and equipment, or real estate."

Immediately prior to joining Amalgamated, Mr. Love served as Senior Vice President of Origination at RBS Business Capital. While working in the New York City office, he originated and closed asset-based transactions in New York City, Long Island, and New Jersey across all sales channels. From 2006 to 2009, he was a Senior Vice President, Team Leader of Origination for CIT Commercial & Industrial in New York and was in charge of a team of asset-based and cash-flow loan originators which covered an area from Maine to Washington, DC, with a focus on the New York metropolitan area and Boston. In 2006, he established a Direct Calling program for CIT that included the creation of critical database fields and originator playbooks.

For seven years before joining CIT, he was Senior Vice President of Origination with GE Commercial Finance Corporate Lending Group in New York and was responsible for originating and closing asset-based and cash-flow transactions in the NYC Metro and Long Island regions. He won a GE Imagine Award in 2004 for an innovative approach to structuring a $200 million revolving credit facility, and in 2002 he earned the highly coveted GE Six Sigma Greenbelt Certification for a project to improve the conversion rate of signed proposals to closed deals. Earlier in his career he had served as a Vice President and new business development coordinator for Dime Commercial Corporation in New York and was an Assistant Vice President/ Account Executive for the Bank of New York Commercial Corp., also in New York.

Mr. Love earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics in June, 1990 from New York University. He is an active member of the Commercial Finance Association, for which he served as President of its New York chapter from 2003 to 2005, and Vice President and Treasurer from 1999 to 2003. He currently sits on that organization's Chapter Focus Committee.

About Amalgamated Bank

Established in 1923 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, Amalgamated Bank continues the progressive traditions of its founders as the only union-owned bank in the United States. Chartered by New York State, Amalgamated Bank is an FDIC insured commercial bank with $4.5 billion in assets. The Bank's corporate divisions also include Commercial Banking, Commercial Real Estate Finance and Amalgamated Capital(TM), a division created a year ago to provide senior cash flow debt financing to lower middle market companies. Amalgamated Capital targets leading private equity firms and other investors who focus on acquiring and growing middle market companies.

Amalgamated Bank is also one of the leading providers of investment and custody services to Taft-Hartley plans in the United States. Amalgamated's Asset Management & Custody Division serves over 850 public sector and Taft-Hartley clients, manages over 1,100 accounts and has over $10.5 billion in assets under management. In the area of corporate governance, the Division is a recognized leader in shareholder activism.

Amalgamated has 23 retail branches including 17 in New York City as well as branches in: Las Vegas, Nevada; Lyndhurst, New Jersey; Pasadena, California, and Washington, D.C. The Bank's website is www.amalgamatedbank.com.

SOURCE Amalgamated Bank