I have had the privilege of working with Patrick Jones in my previous job, and when the opportunity arose to interview someone in the financial field my thoughts immediately turned to him. Pat, as I like to call him, is the branch manager of North State Acceptance, a finance company that focuses on consumer loans in the Eastern part of North Carolina. His friendly demeanor and ever smiling face are attributes that I’m sure have benefited
him greatly in his career, however he is an individual who genuinely cares about people and businesses and has always strived to do the right thing in an industry whose reputation has been marred by those who have not had the same strong character.
When I asked about his past experience with the finance industry he told me that he had previously worked for Wachovia Bank for 23 years managing both consumer and commercial lending. He worked with automobile, RV, and yacht loans with the largest credit underwritten at $3.5M. He later managed a portfolio of automobile dealers by lending them credit and managing wholesale lines of credit. In his career with North State Acceptance, Pat states that currently the biggest challenge is irrational competition. “Many new lenders are entering the market and have forgotten the sins of the past. There is very little discipline that I compete with daily.”
