Burke & Herbert Bank Whittier Ave, Mclean

Burke & Herbert Bank bills its self as a small town bank - the place to go for small business banking. However, when we (CEO and CFO) opened our small business (Woman Owned, LLC, Benefit Corporation) account nothing could have been farther from the truth! The manager who handled our account obviously knew nothing about the nature of small business - the paper work involved or the terminology used to describe our corporation. He adopted a condescending and belligerent tone almost immediately. I hope it was not because I am a woman, but I noticed a different tone when he spoke to our CFO, who is a man. He stated that he doubted the bank could provide what we needed after a cursory glance at our paperwork. He misinterpreted a paragraph in our Articles of Incorporation, which we had to correct him on. This happened several times. After the 5th or so time he left the office to “check” with the branch manager, we decided to leave and were in the process of packing up when he came back in a told us that he would open the account. What followed was over two hours of paperwork and questions. We understand this was part of the process, but at one point he gave us a printed list of accounts and asked us to choose one, refused to accept a passport as a valid ID, and interrupted me several times while I attempted to answer poorly phrased questions. As a result both myself and the CFO were angered and disheartened by this experience. Not good news to bring back to our Board Members and our Counsel Emeritus who had spent the last few months reviewing our paperwork.