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V I E W P O I N T S W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 3 N OV E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 1 8 From the Editor I was assigned the banking beat way back in the Savings & Loan crisis of the early 1990s and several years later worked for American Banker at a time when leveraged buyouts and dot-com deals were making headlines. Which is another way of saying I have a soft spot for banking news. is issue, with a focus of Banking and Finance, may not have the inherent drama of the 1990s, the highs and the lows, but the more highly regulated banking industry is as competitive as ever. As Senior Writer Renee Cordes reports, banks continue to pour into the Portland market. e word from most bankers we talk to is the retail mar- ket is saturated, but there's still business to be won on the commercial side. Renee reports on the banks that are moving into this market, hoping to capture middle-market real estate loans and other business. e expansion is coming from within Maine, most recently from Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, and from outside Maine, in the case of JPMorgan Chase. Each has opened a Portland office. "It's a fist-fight out there," Richard J. MacDonald, managing director for middle-market banking at JPMorgan, tells Renee. "We'll be in the fray as long as we need to be." e commercial lending story starts on Page 23. On another lending front, Senior Writer Laurie Schreiber writes that so-called Community Development Financial Institutions are filling a critical gap by offering financing to small busi- nesses that might not qualify for traditional bank loans. Maine has 11 such institutions, ranging from Coastal Enterprises Inc., which has made a name for itself with a range of services, to the Northern Maine Development Commission in Caribou. e financial institutions are often the foundation of local economic development. "e biggest benefit we see is when it comes to economic development," Glen Holmes, president of Community Concepts Finance Corp., tells Laurie. "If I make a loan to a business, that's the lifeblood of that community. We have communities where there are five businesses and three or four are clients of ours. ere wouldn't be a grocery store or a gas station if it weren't for the work we've done." e CDFI story starts on Page 20. Elsewhere in the focus, we have the latest bank- market share data on Page 19. e list of Maine's largest accounting firms is on Page 30. Peter Van Allen pvanallen@mainebiz.biz Featured @ Mainebiz.biz For a daily digest of Maine's top business news, sign up for the Mainebiz Daily Report at mainebiz.biz/enews Get Maine's business news daily at mainebiz.biz and on Twitter (@Mainebiz). Below is our top content from the weeks between November 5–19. 1. Check out Portland's first retail space built from shipping containers 2. With Poliquin holding the lead, ranked- choice tabulations begin Friday 3. Maine Maritime Academy acquiring land at former Verso mill site in Bucksport 4. The lobster emoji has landed, heralded as 'positive outcome for Maine' 5. Result of Golden-Poliquin race comes down to ranked choice 6. Planet Dog is sold to Denver-based distributor of pet products 7. Bursting at seams, Lewiston sign-maker finds the 'perfect tall building' to meet his needs 8. Athenahealth, with 950 workers in Belfast, to be sold for $5.7B cash 9. Development plan for Waterville's former Seton Hospital moves forward 10. Mills promises 'new era of hope' as Maine's first female governor P H O T O / C O U R T E S Y T H E B L A C K BO X 1 Be smart. BE SHUR. bernsteinshur.com When you need someone committed to raising the bar, not just passing it. As banks scramble for market share, businesses scramble for loans This issue, with its focus of Banking and Finance, shows that the highly regulated banking industry is as competitive as ever.

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