Rocco Perate, director of Beneficial Bank’s SBA lending team, is joining Malvern-based Meridian Bank rather than WSFS Bank, which agreed to buy Beneficial in a deal set to close early next year, writes Jeff Blumenthal for the Philadelphia Business Journal.

“I thought that Meridian was the right size for us, and they were going to give us direct access to the CLO and CFO,” said Perate.

Meridian’s new SBA team will work out of the bank’s Malvern headquarters until its dedicated Philadelphia space is completed early next year. (Meridian is leasing about 4,000 square feet for its new SBA team on the seventh floor of 1760 Market Street.)

“Rocco is a business developer extraordinaire,” said Meridian Bank CEO Chris Annas, who has known Perate for nearly a quarter-century. “He has great referral sources. We do a little SBA lending but nothing like what his team does.”

Read more about the move in the Philadelphia Business Journal here.

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