Miami’s City National Bank donates $1 million to nonprofits

City National Bank announced this week it has donated $1 million to South Florida nonprofits to support the response to the COVID-19 emergency.

In an interview, CEO Jorge Gonzalez said the region’s economic recovery “is going to take awhile.”

“The impact has been long and deep,” he said. “We are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, a bit more optimism with unemployment coming down and with the reopenings. But to have something so spontaneous and impactful hit across the entire globe ... the relief effort this takes is huge.”

Recipients of the donation include hospitals such as Jackson Memorial, Baptist Health and Orlando Health. Other recipients include Feeding South Florida; Miami Bridge, which supports youth in crisis; and Camillus House, which aids the homeless.

City National has been among the most active local banks in facilitating the Paycheck Protection Program, having completed approximately 9,000 loans totaling some $2 billion.

“That’s typically what we do in an entire year,” Gonzalez said in an earlier interview.

City National has also been among the most active banks in the nation in implementing the Federal Reserve’s Main Street Lending Program, designed to support small and mediumsized businesses and nonprofit organizations “that were in sound financial condition before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Gonzalez said the bank projects it will facilitate approximately $1 billion in loans under that program.

Still, he said, traditional lending continues to be slow. The bank’s biggest job now is prioritizing clients “where we have visibility to cash flow going forward.”

“If there are no other major setbacks we should be OK, but a lot is still dependent on COVID infections,” he said. “We are being cautious, but we are open for business.”