Pacific Mercantile Bank launched a Solar and Renewable Energy Lending group, which will offer specialized financing to companies engaged in sustainable, renewable energy projects across the U.S.

The new lending group will be led by Scott Reising. Reising previously served as senior vice president and group head of the Renewable Resources group (RRG) at Bridge Bank, a division of Western Alliance Bank.  As group head of RRG, Reising built a national lending practice focused on developing project financings in the cleantech and renewable energy space. The RRG extended commitments of more than $400 million into the renewable energy market in commercial distributed generation projects, as well as residential portfolios and utility scale projects.

Prior to joining Bridge Bank, Reising worked for a number of large European banks where he was involved in reviewing, analyzing or approving more than $20 billion in structured finance and project finance transactions in the renewable energy space, large infrastructure and other water and energy transactions.

“Renewable energy financing is an excellent fit with our commercial banking platform,” said Tom Vertin, president and CEO of Pacific Mercantile Bank.  “We specialize in developing the type of customized, flexible financing solutions required for small-scale renewable energy commercial projects. Capitalizing on the strong demand for renewable energy financing will provide another catalyst for growing our commercial loan portfolio in the years ahead.”

“Scott is a well-known authority on project financing in the renewable energy space,” said Robert Anderson, executive vice president and head of Product and Market Development for Pacific Mercantile Bank. “He provides the kind of advisory services and structuring expertise typically offered by larger multi-national banks. This will be a distinct competitive advantage in developing the small-scale financing opportunities that we are targeting. We are very pleased to add Scott to our team.”