We are pleased to share that Burling Bank continues to earn a 5-star rating from Bauer Financial. This prestigious award recognizes us as one of the strongest financial institutions in the United States for superior security, strength and reliability. We are grateful to our clients, staff, and board of directors for this shared success and welcome distinction.

Bauer Financial, Inc. is the nation’s leading independent bank and credit union rating firm. To learn more about our 5-star banking experience, please visit our office in the landmark Chicago Board of Trade Building or contact us today.

The new Burling Real Economy Impact Report shows that your deposits in Burling Bank are an investment in your community.

When you’re a Burling Bank customer, your money doesn’t just sit in a bank. It’s in motion, financing small businesses in your community, as you can see in the new Burling Real Economy Impact Report.

The quarterly report is the result of a partnership between Burling Bank and the women-led startup Mighty based at the University of Chicago Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Each new edition contains data on Burling Bank’s community investments and spotlights specific local businesses we support.

While the big banks in Chicago make just 3% of their total small business loans in Chicago, we provide 93% of our small business loans to local Chicago businesses. Some of these businesses highlighted in our new impact report include:

• Luxe Property Management LLC, a real estate developer that renovates and retains landmark-quality Chicago properties. The Chicago Reader has called owner Brad Suster the Anti-Demolition Man.
• Bottom Line Yoga, which offers workday yoga, meditation and corporate wellness classes to Chicago professionals.
• Wabash Seafood, which distributes quality seafood to top chefs across the city.
• Logan Arcade, a bar offering Chicago’s best-maintained, largest collection of vintage pinball and video games.

Burling Bank puts your money to work in the community. Our management team and staff are also proud to volunteer their time as members on the boards and committees of several local nonprofits.

When you bank with Burling, you can be confident that your money is invested with people who are truly invested in the Chicago business community.

As we continue to serve and support Chicago’s business, innovation and financial communities, we are pleased to present you with a small business feature in our latest newsletter.

Visit the latest edition of the Burling Bulletin. 

At Burling Bank, many of our clients own small, closely-held or family-run businesses. So the mindset and outlook of local business owners is of great interest to us.

The Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, together with Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business, recently completed a Chicagoland Small Business Economic Outlook Survey of over 500 local business owners.

Our discussions with clients and this industry report both reflect that small business owners are generally optimistic about the economy in 2018.

Here are some highlights from that report:

Most small business owners feel the outlook for business is bright in 2018: 

• 71% Expect sales to increase in 2018
• 88% Expect to grow their business in 2018
• 37% Believe the Chicago economy will strengthen this year
• 61% Plan to expand in Illinois

But there are also some common concerns among local owners:

• Talent acquisitionis the fastest growing concern of small businesses. This concern rose 10% in 2017 so that 66% of small businesses now worry about accessing the skilled workers they need to hire.
• The cost of healthcareis the second-fastest growing concern in the survey, but also the most prevalent. It rose 6% in 2017 and the survey shows it is a worry of 88% of Chicagoland small business owners.
• Concerns regarding taxes and regulatory requirements are also rising, both up 3% from 2017. 82% of small businesses are concerned about taxes. 69% are concerned about regulatory requirements.

At Burling Bank, we are here to help small business owners achieve their goals with helpful financing solutions and cash management tools that are essential to growing companies. If you are a small business owner looking to fuel your optimistic outlook and expand your business, contact us about financing solutions and services at 312-408-8400.

Source: The survey of 504 business owners, was conducted by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business.

When you bank at Burling Bank, your money isn’t just sitting in an account. It goes to work in the form of loans that fuel the growth of small businesses and start-up companies in our local neighborhoods.

To help you better understand how your deposits work to make the community better, Burling Bank has partnered with Chicago-based startup Mighty to provide impact reporting.

The mission of Mighty, based at the University of Chicago Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and featured in Fast Company and American Banker, is to help you understand the footprint of your money.

We just received our first report and are very proud to share that $80 of every $100 you have on deposit at Burling Bank flows back into small businesses and organizations within our neighborhoods. Dollar for dollar, Burling Bank puts $34 more financing back into our local communities – nearly twice as much than the average big bank with a branch in the Chicago area.

Burling Bank is delighted to partner with Mighty to facilitate this experience for our clients. Please visit the full report here.

Creative. Collaborative. Conscientious. These three words best describe our Chief Lending Officer, Kevin Murphy. As a member of the Chicago banking community for over 25 years Kevin has been creatively and collaboratively helping Chicago area business owners secure the financing they need to grow and thrive.

When Kevin joined Burling Bank in 2012, he was drawn in by the culture of banking on a better relationship. He leads a lending team at Burling Bank that is centered on the premise that they are here to help companies and individuals expand their financial capacity to meet and achieve their business and personal goals. “Whether that idea manifests as business expansion, a home improvement project or an entrepreneurial dream, Burling Bank helps our clients with financing solutions that create wins,” explains Murphy.

But banking is not the only place where Murphy focuses on “wins.” When the weather cooperates, you just might find Kevin cycling to our office in the Loop, from his North Shore suburban home. He has effectively combined this love of cycling with his desire to make an impact.

Over 15 years ago he began fundraising for MS through the event, Bike MS: Tour de Farms. This annual cycling event raises money to fund critical services, groundbreaking research and move us closer to a world free of MS. Murphy annually leads a top fundraising team, Wheeler Dealers, in the Tour De Farms event. For more information about this event click here.

What does Kevin like best about his role at Burling? “We get to know our clients, plain and simple. As relationship bankers it’s very rewarding to be able to help our clients with both their business and personal needs and watch that partnership prosper and grow over the years” explains Murphy.

Kevin feels a deep sense of pride knowing that at Burling Bank he has the ability to tailor the approach to every client. “As large banks merge to become bigger and bigger, it becomes harder to sustain true relationships. Community-focused banks like Burling are built on relationships and are able to customize their approach to prioritize client needs,” says Murphy.

We thank Kevin for his commitment to our clients, our bank and our community.

Please note our Holiday Hours:

December 22, 2017: Close at 1:00 PM
December 25, 2017: Closed
December 29, 2017: Close at 2:00 PM
January 1, 2018: Closed

Happy Thanksgiving from Burling Bank!

Please be advised of our holiday hours this week:

• Thursday, November 24, closed
• Friday, November 25, close at 1 pm

As always, you can access our online banking on our website for banking needs.

As we embark on the last quarter of 2017, our focus continues to be on innovation and collaboration. In our recent newsletter, learn how our involvement in FinTech will help intertwine technology with the banking and financial sectors. Listen to the recent podcast where Bank president Michael Busch and Lisa Curran, co-founder of the nonprofit industry group FinTEx, provide an informed glimpse into what’s going on in Chicago’s FinTech scene.

At Burling Bank, we do more than offer banking products and knowledge. We also deliver security, reliability and personalized service across all channels, from mobile banking to mortgages and personal loans.

As always, we appreciate your confidence in Burling Bank and look forward to sharing more updates on innovation across our community to help you better manage your business, your life, and your future. Click on the image to read our newsletter.