KeyBank Combines Impressive Services
with Extensive Community Involvement

 

KeyBank, a financial institution with deep roots in Whatcom County, is this year’s title sponsor of the 2001 Businessperson and Small Business of the Year Awards Banquet, scheduled March 14 at Resort Semiahmoo in Blaine.

KeyBank’s involvement in the county dates back to 1905 with the opening of Bellingham National Bank. The county now is part of KeyBank’s Trans-Mountain District, which spans 11 counties in two distinct geographic regions, ranging from north of Seattle to the Canadian border, including the San Juan Islands, and crossing the Cascade Mountains to include all of Eastern Washington. Bellingham-based Peggy Zoro is the bank’s district president.

“What we try to be is the very best bank for employees, for clients, for the community and shareholders,” Zoro says. The priority is in that order, she adds, because happy and productive employees will benefit clients, community and shareholders.

Within the district, KeyBank offers 30 branches, 57 automatic teller machines, four business banking teams and one private bank team.

KeyBank also offers one of the industry’s most innovative and highly rated financial services Web sites at www.Key.com, which is designed to serve individuals as well as business customers. Customers can access product and service information, current interest rates, account balances and self-help questionnaires and calculators. One of every four Key checking-account households now banks online. Also, following recent enhancements, visits to Key’s Small Business Online Solutions Center — www.key.com/sbsolutions — increased more than 165 percent over the same time period for the previous year.

KeyBank demonstrates its commitment to the communities it serves by donating more than $390,000 annually to community organizations throughout the Trans-Mountain District. Contributions have increased 47 percent since 1997.

In 2001, the district allocated $92,900 in sponsorships and $299,900 in foundation grants. Beneficiaries include Boys and Girls Clubs, Whatcom Hospice Foundation, Habitat for Humanity and the Whatcom Hispanic Organization. Besides Business Pulse’s awards banquet, KeyBank also sponsors a variety of events, including the upcoming Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, Western Washington University Viking Night and the Whatcom Hospice Foundation’s Maritime Festival.

In addition, Trans-Mountain District employees serve on 88 nonprofit boards and donates hundreds of hours of volunteer service each year to more than 190 organizations. Employees also contribute more than $24,000 annually to benefit United Way. Their gifts are matched by KeyBank, bringing the combined United Way contributions to more than $48,000 each year.