No place like home

It isn't hard to name the top three economic stories in Massachusetts right now: jobs, jobs, and jobs.

Over the past three years, Massachusetts has lost a greater percentage of its jobs than any state in the nation, about three times the US average. A week ago, new figures revealed the state's worst monthly job losses in a year, turning up the pressure on Governor Mitt Romney to do something.

Amid all those troubling numbers, Citizens Bank executives arrived at the State House last week with an innovative idea.

Standing next to the governor at a news conference, bank executives unveiled a commercial credit program offering as much as $100 million in low-interest loans for firms pledging to create jobs in the state. ''It doesn't get any better than this," Citizens executive Stephen Steinour gushed in published reports.

Of course, there was a catch. The State House was in Harrisburg, not Boston. And Romney wasn't there. The governor was Pennsylvania's Edward Rendell.

For a bit of context, take a look at the job-loss tote board for the past three years, as measured in January by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Massachusetts ranked first by losing 6.2 percent of its jobs, or 208,200 positions. Pennsylvania finished 12th by losing 2.6 percent of its jobs, or 146,400 positions.

Huh?

In these waning days before our dominant hometown institution morphs into a Bank of America field office, all others left standing are shouting out their local commitments.

Citizens Financial Group plays the local card as aggressively as any bank in Boston and, in most respects, deservedly so.

Chief executive Larry Fish is a genuinely important local figure, even if he must ultimately answer to someone an ocean away, in Edinburgh.

So why is Citizen's innovative commercial loan program to jump-start job creation aimed elsewhere?

Here's the official Citizens answer: Each of its regional banks operates with a large degree of autonomy, and the Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania decided jobs were Job One.

The decision in Massachusetts was mostly about affordable housing.

Though there's an element of truth to that, I have a few different ideas.

Citizens, which has grown dramatically by purchasing other banks over the years, is under pressure from Scotland to grow even more as soon as possible.

Many of the best opportunities are in Pennsylvania (home to 49 public banks or thrifts without merger commitments, compared with 20 in Massachusetts).

Fish expanded Citizens in New England with savvy brand-building and a commitment to forging relationships of all kinds. Citizens is doing exactly that in mid-Atlantic states, specifically Pennsylvania, right now.

When baseball's opening day rolls around in about a week, the Philadelphia Phillies will play in their new Citizens Bank Park for the first time. Citizens agreed to pay $95 million for naming rights and an exclusive marketing package last year.

The bank hired advisers close to the Pennsylvania governor and came up with an idea that plugged into his multibillion-dollar state stimulus plan. The $100 million loan program will be a terrific tool for business leads and addresses an issue that resonates with Pennsylvania customers.

That same jobs issue is quickly gaining political traction here (Romney proposed a $29 million grant and loan program for job creation last week). Perhaps Citizens and even other local banks will take notice soon. Job-targeting loan programs are a bit like a Band-Aid for a patient run over by a truck, but you have to start somewhere.

Today's question for Larry Fish: What about us? As they will say many times at Citizens Bank Park: Play ball!

Steven Syre is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at syre@globe.com.