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BLUE BELL - Progress Bank is renaming its specialized lending division "TechBanc" and intends to use the brand to expand its business in New Jersey, the Baltimore and Washington areas and on the Internet.
The main subsidiary of Progress Financial Corp. has been known as TechBanc in its role as one of the preferred service providers to the Eastern Technology Council, a trade group for area tech firms that is based on the Wayne campus of Safeguard Scientifics Inc.
It recently purchased the right to use the name from the council so that it could put a livelier moniker than "specialized lending" on its emerging-growth company business.
"What started out as just a catchy marketing name has really evolved into a line of business and it's how we're going to market ourselves," said Steven D. Hobman, Progress' senior vice president in charge of specialized lending.
The first two places it intends to market itself that way are in New Jersey and on the Internet.
Progress is opening a Princeton-based branch of "TechBanc - a Division of Progress Bank" that will be managed by Kathleen W. Coviello, a vice president in the bank's specialized lending division. Progress also will put up some TechBanc pages on its Web site (www.progressonline.com).
Given the problems being experienced by tech companies, both public and private, this might not seem like the best time for a bank to boost its efforts to lend to them. But...