Comerica Corner- Making banking easier for small businesses

Conversation with Omar Salah, Executive Vice President and National Director of Small Business Banking at Comerica Bank

By Luana Ferreira

One of Omar Salah's childhood memories is when he entered a bank for the first time at the age of 3 years old. When his mother and father both immigrated to the United States in the 1970’s, they started a small business providing janitorial services to banks in the San Diego area. Salah recalls sitting on the bank teller line in the early mornings before the bank opened, helping his mother with the cleaning duties at the bank. Ironically, four decades later, Salah is the Executive Vice President and National Director of Small Business Banking at Comerica Bank. His early experiences with his family's small business remains crucial to understanding his clients and managing his team.

Salah started his career in banking as a part-time teller at Union Bank while in college. After graduating, he was accepted into the bank’s management training program, which accelerated his banking career. After nearly 20 years with Union Bank, he joined Comerica Bank in 2022.

According to Salah, the pandemic has led many people to entrepreneurship. The Latina-owned business is the fastest growing segment in the country, which also represents an excellent opportunity for banks who need to be prepared to understand the new demands. Therefore, Salah is focusing Comerica on hiring small business bankers who represent the communities they serve.

"Ensuring we have small business bankers that reflect our customer base is going to be one of my main priorities. We do that by embedding our bankers within their communities and local organizations, as well as making sure we have a diverse set of language skills including Spanish-speaking bankers,” he says. “This helps our teams better connect with our business owner clients.” 

He is also working to create credit programs for women, minorities and veterans who have businesses. "There is a way to carve out a special purpose credit program that supports groups that may historically have had a disadvantage," explains Salah. 

Salah knows that small companies are often at a disadvantage compared to big players. They don't have access to fast supply channels, the owner usually plays multiple roles, leaving little time left to do their business banking.

"Because of those gaps and issues that small business owners have to keep their business going, our focus at Comerica is to make the banking part as easy as possible through relationships with their banker."

Salah says for those considering opening a business they need three important relationships: a good banker, accountant, and lawyer. "And if you are Spanish speaking, find a bank with Spanish speakers and find a person in that bank that knows small business."

Salah recommends that small business owners understand the importance of having good advisors, especially in the beginning stages of starting up their business. Things like setting up the right legal structure for their small business is so important and often overlooked.

"Most new business owners don't realize the risk they're taking by not working with an advisor to learn about how to organize their business, like whether they should start as a sole proprietorship, S-corporation, or LLC."

Growing up in a hard-working family also shaped how Salah leads his team. He prioritizes a good attitude, personality, and hard work when hiring someone. Yet, "hard work" doesn't mean "working all the time" for him, and he expects his team to take some time off.

He also highlights the importance of teaching by example. "If you are the leader and are responding to emails on vacations and every weekend, you have committed a cardinal sin because now everyone assumes that is the norm." 

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Editor’s highlight: "Ensuring we have small business bankers that reflect our customer base is going to be one of my main priorities.”

Editor’s highlight 2: He is also working to create credit programs for women, minorities and veterans who have businesses.

Photo credit: Courtesy of Comerica Bank