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Surrey Bank & Trust, one of two locally-owned banks serving Surry County, has opened a loan production office at 1328 North Bridge St. in Elkin.

“With a loan production office in Elkin, we can better serve our customers in Elkin, Jonesville, and surrounding communities,” said Ted Ashby, Surrey Bank President & CEO. “We are excited about having a physical presence in Elkin and look forward to strengthening our existing relationships there — and establishing new ones.”

Ashby said that the bank anticipates opening a full-service branch in Elkin in the near future.

“We’ve received a very warm welcome already,” noted Bill Johnson, city executive and commercial loan manager at the Elkin Loan Production Office, who has been working on setting up the office for the past few weeks.

Johnson, who most recently was Chief Financial Officer at J. G. Coram Company, Inc., in Mount Airy, began his banking career as a commercial lender with Southern National Bank, which was subsequently acquired by BB&T. At the time Johnson left Southern National, he was Branch Administrator and commercial loan officer for the Mount Airy region, which also included Sparta, King, and Pilot Mountain.

In addition, Johnson was a member of the Surrey Bancorp Board of Directors from the bank’s founding in 1996 until last month, when he resigned in order to launch the new Loan Production Office.

Johnson is also treasurer of the Surry County Economic Development Partnership. He is also active in Rotary and the Mount Airy Youth Foundation. A graduate of East Carolina State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, Johnson is married to Elkin native Tina Bell Johnson. He has a son, Michael, and two stepdaughters, Abby and Haley Hagwood.

Surrey Bank & Trust is known for its small business lending activities. Founded by a group of Surry County business executives, the bank is committed to serving small business customers in the area.

Surrey Bank & Trust consistently ranks among the leading Small Business Administration lenders in North Carolina and has been North Carolina Community Bank Lender of the Year for eight of the past nine years. Surrey Bank also received an SBA “Regional Outstanding Lender” award for SBA Region 4, which includes North and South Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

Surrey Bank is one of 18 SBA Preferred Lenders doing business in North Carolina. “This designation allows Surrey Bank to provide faster approvals and better service to small business customers,” according to Peter A Pequeno, Senior Vice President and Chief Lending Officer. Under the Preferred Lending Program, the SBA delegates loan approval, closing, and most servicing and liquidation authority and responsibility to participating lenders, thus reducing the amount of time required to process credit requests.

Surrey Bank also earned a grade of “A” from Banking Grades, an online tool that grades banks on their commitment to small business lending. To earn an “A,” a bank must use at least 25 percent of its deposits to make small business loans of $1 million or less; Surrey Bank has a loan to deposit ratio of 43 percent.

The Surrey Bank Elkin Loan Production Office will offer customers a complete range of loan products, including SBA and other government-guaranteed commercial loan programs, Johnson said.

The Elkin office will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The telephone number for the new office is (336) 526-1803. Johnson can be reached by emailing bjohnson@surreybank.com.