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Los Angeles, CA – 1^st PMF Bancorp CEO Stephen Perl meets Los Angeles Mayor’s team and its MBOC (Los Angeles -Minority Business Opportunity Center) at the Mayor’s Finance Partners Meeting today. MBOC Executive Director Linda Smith and Mr. Perl agreed upon setting goals for a long-term partnership and further cooperation in the coming year.

January 26^th, 1^st PMF Bancorp met with Mayor’s key team to discuss implementing PMF’s financing platform. MBOC Executive Director Linda Smith and Business Development Manager Ronald A. Lowe gave welcome remarks, and then introduced the latest programs developed by the government to help small to mid size minority companies survive in this economy downturn.

Among all the bankers, the most famous banker was Mr. Stephen Perl, CEO 1^st PMF Bancorp. He manages 1^st PMF Bancorp, which has specialties in invoice factoring, trade financing, credit insurance and financing minority companies. Perl has been working with minority businesses for about 15 years, and has been on the advisory board for MBOC for more than five years.

“We focus on helping them (small businesses) with their working capital, invoice factoring and credit systems to create safety and liquidity when the traditional banks will not,” said Perl.

Ms. Smith announced the opening of MBDC (Minority Business Development Center) in the meeting. The new programs at the Mayor’s Office focuses on developing policies and programs to make it easier for small businesses to do business in Los Angeles, such as streamline daily business with the city, provide consulting services to qualified businesses, and help small businesses get access to capital.

“The new program focuses on a larger minority business for USD $1 million to $50 million. It not only creates jobs, but also much more financeable even for small finance companies. We’ll join the opportunity to support the Mayor’s office. We hope to embrace this new program and help Los Angeles to create more jobs,” said Perl.

After the meeting, Mr. Perl and Ms. Smith had a conversation about PMF facilitating Mayor’s Office with the export transactions for the new program. “Not only does PMF have expertise in export finance and help lots of small businesses through that. But we also have ChinaMart as a partner to help locate good buyers in China and abroad,” said Perl.

Mr. Perl also introduced the new Minority Export Lending Program of PMF. This Program will support companies with sales from $1 million to $50 million USD. sales small businesses with export lending credit. Mr. Stephen Perl.

About 1st PMF Bancorp

1^st PMF Bancorp is the largest privately owned trade finance platform based in the U.S. with dedicated programs to financing minority businesses. Since 1985, 1st PMF Bancorp has financed manufacturers and wholesalers globally. PMF has specialties in trade finance of general merchandise products. PMF has many financial products to support growth domestically and internationally of minority companies offering a host of credit insurance, escrow/payment system, and other services.

“Our software company struggled to maintain development while working with large clients requiring terms, but PMF created a receivable line that we could use when needed and not pay anything while not being used.” – OMI Software

“Our pallet manufacturer has been able to grow at more than 30% for the last 5 years of working with PMF.” – JSI Pallets

“The import financing PMF has given our business the ability to bring in multiple containers on a monthly basis and allowed our company to triple sales in one year.” – 1World Art Glass and Lamps

Associated Staffing specializes in maintenance and provides a $2,000,000 revolving A/R line to meet weekly payroll.

“We started with PMF bancorp when we opened our business 10 years ago and with PMF’s continued support, our sales will exceed $50 million this year.”

Lucent Technology, manufacturer of auto products, provides a $1,000,000 revolving A/R line and trade finance line for Letters of Credit.

“Our company has been able to finance imported products to meet the demand of our large U.S. retailers and then get access to receivable financing to grow our sales from $500k to almost $10 million in 3 years.  We love PMF!”

For almost 3 decades, 1st PMF Bancorp has financed small, medium and large manufacturers and wholesalers. Come watch why the family owned bank is the right choice for your business and see how they have helped other wholesalers and manufacturers get the necessary financing needed to enter new markets.

Friday, July 16, 2010: With fingers crossed, authorities have reported that the oil leak which has spewed an estimated 184 million gallons of crude from the seabed in the Gulf of Mexico since late April of this year, has been capped. While this serves as a triumphant moment for the residents and locals of affected areas, it represents an altogether different challenge: the financial sector, which has taken quite a bit of negative publicity in the past few years, has found itself with an opportunity to present a message of restoration and repair.

Stephen Perl, CEO of ChinaMart and PMF Bancorp, made a brief voyage to the coast, to assess the damage, and get a hands-on experience with what costs are being incurred, as a result of the disastrous oil drilling platform blowout.

Stephen Perl, standing at the foreground, speaks to an official about the severity of damage inflicted upon the local community by the BP oil spill.

The result of Perl’s trip was a deepened and renewed concern for the lending community to do their part in rebuilding and restructuring a fragile system that has already been compromised. When asked what he thought of the situation, Perl says “Private bank lenders, such as PMF Bancorp, are needed now more than ever during this crisis. We are financing small to medium-size companies, whereas the larger banks are bogged down with bureaucracy, and their own financial problems.” He added that a new level of responsibility has emerged for this new breed of lenders, and the time is right for real stimulus to take place, that will bolster small and medium-sized businesses who have trouble competing with large corporations. Standing on the beach, looking at the vast expanse of oil-slicked waters, Stephen added “We need to get our economy going again, and we especially need the lenders out there to do their job, and start lending today.”

ChinaMart™ Los Angeles Marketing Services successfully connects another Chinese tenant at its LA Showroom with Sam’s Club (USA) for large-scale orders!

By Rueben Marley

Getting a deal with a large retailer is a good thing, but securing a large-scale agreement for future orders is even better; especially when the retailer is an established, well-respected industry giant like Sam’s Club.

ChinaMart™ Los Angeles (also known as “CMLA”) has just made another success story possible for its Chinese clients in the retail sector. In doing so – and as a unique business platform – CMLA is designed to assist Chinese companies in opening their US-based branches, and to sell directly to the big box retailers, wholesalers, and distributors that are located in the USA.

This time, CMLA places yet another Chinese client’s products successfully in a big box retail store. This landmark agreement comes at a time when for many years previously, Chinese companies had been unable to sell directly to major retailers. This period of unsuccessful relationships were largely due to lack of understanding of US sales channels, and basic communication problems due to language differences. Now, ChinaMart™ Los Angeles has created a platform to solve this problem, and to allow Chinese companies to sell directly to large retailers and wholesalers.

“This is clearly a double-win situation,” says Stephen Perl, CEO of ChinaMart™. “First PMF Bancorp will be the exclusive lending partner available to insure the adequate level of financing is available for their client to manufacturer the goods that are destined for an American-based retail outlet.”

After a nine-month period of working with their counterparts to deliver sales presentations and attending a large number of meetings, CMLA has completed the initial approval processes to begin selling client products. Now, Sam’s Club is the latest success story, now that CMLA has accomplished its goals for this major housewares manufacturer to enter the retail market at such a large scale.

CMLA provides a unique, complete platform that assists Chinese companies with managing their initial investments to open up a showroom and office branch in the USA, to set up their corporation, establish bank accounts, trade lines of credit, hire staff, and create marketing strategies. However, the support of key marketing staff remains a part of the ChinaMart™ experience, as well. All of this is offered to clients, while creating appointments and key opportunities to introduce a Chinese client’s products to major American retailers and wholesalers.

CMLA is designed to assist Chinese manufacturers to skip the importer, and begin selling directly to the major retailers, key distributors, and wholesalers in the USA.

ChinaMart™ Los Angeles specialty marketing services are made possible through many direct relationships with nearly all major US-based retailers.
By Rueben Marley

In an effort to continue building upon a solid base of trade partners that have proven themselves time after time, members of ChinaMart™ will be making an upcoming trip to Asia. At this time, ChinaMart™ Los Angeles and recently-launched global trade platform Manufacturer.com will be promoting a new and unique premium service package that is by far the most complete solution for selling offline and online in the US Market.

As many clients know, Marketing Services are ChinaMart™’s specialty, through the company’s many direct relationships with all of the major retailers in the USA. These relationships are what sets ChinaMart apart from other services which may promise many benefits, but lack the relationships that are needed to create an environment of trust and effective communication between Chinese manufacturers and US-based companies and retail outlets.

Features of the Basic Marketing Package with 1 Showroom include:

• Trade Show Promotions via the largest U.S. Shows in Las Vegas and Chicago
• Online Promotion via the largest B-to-B Wholesaler portal in the U.S.
• Custom Marketing Packages could include the following at additional Cost:
• Private Meetings to review your products with Large Retailers
• Specialized promotions to place your products on top of Google Listings and B2B Wholesale Buyer portals.
• Placement with 100s of Sales Reps to represent your specific line and managed by our internal Senior Sales Directors.
• Creation of a Customized Marketing Plan
• Specific Market Analysis on your Product
• Sales and distribution channel analysis
• Lists of potential customers and their contact name and numbers
• SWOT Analysis

The integration of these two entities is already being heralded as an unprecedented method for businesses to gain access to thousands of major US wholesalers, by using the platform on a daily basis, and making it a part of regular business model. There is an added layer of benefit for companies that utilize this resource, as a wealth of resources can also be reached throughout the enormous listings found on TopTenWholesale.com, which provides direct access to all of the industry’s major wholesalers via its key media partnership with the largest trade shows in the USA. The list includes some well-known featured trade partners such as ASD, The National Hardware Show, OFFPRICE, and Internet Retailer.