Wallis State Bank’s Aziz Rahim Gets SBA Award
By Jawahar Malhotra
HOUSTON: Wallis State Bank once again was the center of attention at the SCORE/SBA Annual Awards Luncheon when Sr. Vice President Aziz Rahim won the Financial Services Champion of the Year award. Just last year WSB’s Rajiv Bhavsar, Sr. Vice President of Commercial Lending had nabbed the same award.
The event is held each year award from SCORE Houston, a resource partner of the US Small Business Administration. The function was held over lunch for over 600 people at the Westin Galleria Hotel in the Galleria and featured Richard Rybacki, the SCORE Chapter 37 President; Bob Charlet, President and Publisher of the Houston Business Journal as emcee and SBA Houston District Director Tim Jeffcoat.
When giving him this award, the SBA recognized Rahim’s skill as a banker and relationship manager at WSB doing a high volume of SBA loans in the Houston area as well as his community activism and for holding educational seminars. He has been with WSB for seven years and his portfolio includes commercial to hotel loans upwards of $5 million
Wallis State Bank is a 111 year institution that was established a wood frame building in 1906 in the small town of Wallis, about 60 miles southwest of downtown Houston on Hwy. 36 between Sealy and Rosenberg. Musa Dakri, an Indian entrepreneur with considerable skill in banking took over ownership in the early 1990s and expanded its operations to Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fulshear and Los Angeles. Since then, his son Asif has taken over the reins and continues with the same growth plans.