St. Pete bank continues besting industry behemoths

A St. Petersburg-based community bank has again ranked ahead of industry titans on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s list of top lenders.

BayFirst Bank recently finished fifth for loan volume among over 1,460 Small Business Administration (SBA) lenders nationwide. The local community bank outpaced conglomerates like Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase on the year-end list.

John Macaluso, chief technology officer, credited BayFirst’s innovative approach to lending for its success. Automating arduous processes also allows its comparatively small team to punch above their weight.

“It feels really good to be able to put money in the hands of these business owners,” Macaluso said. “When a business needs money, they’re not saying, ‘I need money in three months.’ They’re saying, I need money in three weeks.'”

BayFirst clients received 3,187 SBA loans in fiscal year 2024. The average loan was $159,412, and the St. Petersburg bank’s total approval amount was $508.05 million – good enough for 11^th in the nation.

The community bank with 12 branches began processing more SBA loans than industry heavyweights in 2022 when Macaluso guided the launch of PowerLOS.

PowerLOS is a loan operating system that mitigates the substantial paperwork and documentation required to approve loans. BayFirst now completes a typical 60-to-90-day process in less than three weeks.

“We can take an application for a customer online in real time, and we can qualify that customer within literally minutes,” Macaluso said. “We take in about 1,000 applications a month and close about 300.”

John Macaluso, chief technological officer for BayFirst Bank.

Institutions like Bank of America, which finished 12^th in SBA lending volume, typically dedicate hundreds or thousands of lenders to the program. BayFirst has less than 20.

“We’ve done that through high degrees of automation and process management,” Macaluso said. “That allows us, our people, to be very effective – all with the objective of getting money into the hands of small businesses.”

He noted that BayFirst’s leadership put their faith, and money, into technology. The Power platform is now on its third generation, and Macaluso said they “have some visions for the future on how to automate even more of the processes.”

He said the bank’s efficient loan processing system has helped keep small businesses with low operating margins, like restaurants, from closing their doors. While the technology has propelled success, Macaluso also stressed the importance of BayFirst’s “incredible human talent.”

“What we’re able to do with the technology is free those people to focus on working with the customers versus going through the processes,” he added. “That was what we were trying to unlock from the beginning – how do we get our people to focus on the high-value stuff, and how do we use the technology to take the mundane activities.”

“We have saved, just year-to-year, 20,000 to 30,000 thousand hours of labor.”

BayFirst finished ahead of several of the nation’s most prominent banks. Screengrab.

BayFirst is, by far, Tampa Bay’s top SBA lender. Macaluso noted mom-and-pop businesses often do not receive the same attention from ubiquitous nationwide banks.

He called the community bank’s efforts “meaningful.” The National Association of Government Lenders would agree with that claim.

The organization found that in 2023, loans less than $50,000 accounted for nearly 30% of all SBA approvals. Over half were under $150,000.

Bank of America’s $512,248 average SBA loan amount more than tripled BayFirst’s $159,412. Macaluso said leadership hired “great people,” many from larger institutions, and tasked them to “be different.”

“We are literally a homegrown bank,” Macaluso said. “The majority of our investors are from this area, our board members are from this area, our executive team and senior leadership – all from this area. We’re going to provide excellent service, and our people go out of their way to work in the communities.”

Macaluso plans to utilize the Power platform on all small business and conventional commercial loans in early 2025. Forbes recently published “America’s Best Banks in Each State”; BayFirst placed first in Florida according to trust, terms, financial advice and branch and digital services.