Meet Matt Jones a hockey-playing SBA banker with a heart for people

As a recreational hockey player, our Vice President and SBA Business Development Officer Matt Jones knows about hat tricks. Off the ice, Matt’s also scoring in the game of life through his sincere focus on areas that mean the most to him.

“I care about people, my family and my faith,” he said. “If you care about people, that’s portrayed in your relationships with them.”

He’s quick to point out that all relationships revolve around communication. And when he says people, Matt means all kinds of people. Here at Banner, he’s particularly keen on serving and supporting business people. His role assisting business owners with Small Business Administration (SBA) financing is a natural progression of his banking career. It draws upon his ability to build relationships and his understanding of the intricacies and possibilities of the SBA’s government-backed business financing programs.

“We help meet financial needs that conventional lending options don’t cover,” he said of our SBA program. “It’s there to meet the more difficult requests.”

Assisting potential SBA borrowers is a great match for the self-described “problem-solver,” who notes that SBA loans can finance working capital, real estate purchases and business acquisitions as well as other business needs. And at Banner, he said, we have a “common sense lending appetite and willingness to make a deal fit.” Clients served by our SBA program range from medical professionals to construction companies and from software developers to ice cream shops.

Matt joined our team in the fall of 2022, building on more than 15 years of financial industry experience that centered largely on business banking and commercial lending. It was over those years that he was first introduced to and came to appreciate the value of SBA financing.

“Overall I love what I do,” he said. “I love helping business owners, and I couldn’t be happier to be here. SBA is phenomenal and Banner Bank is phenomenal.”

A multi-sport athlete, Matt claims ice hockey as his favorite sport. He enjoys playing in a recreational hockey league with two brothers. The married father of two young children—with another child due July 2024—is a youth leader for a high-school-aged group at his church and treasurer of his neighborhood HOA. He calls the foothills area northwest of Sacramento home.