Small Business

Green Shoots at Last: Small Business Lending Finally Starting to Thaw

Take heart, small businesses — big banks are beginning to lend to you again. For the first time since 2006, lenders are making it easier for companies with annual sales of less than $50 million to get “construction and industrial” loans, according to the Federal Reserve Board’s latest bank lending survey.

In particular, around one-fifth of large domestic banks reported having eased lending standards for small firms, which offset a net tightening of standards by a small fraction of other banks.

What small business owners and managers really want to know is this: Do banks’ more stringent underwriting standards represent a return to a normal lending environment following years of easy money, or are financial institutions making it excessively hard to borrow even for creditworthy firms?

I wish I had a clear answer. Unfortuna

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Tags: Business, Small Business

Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 Financial Consultant No Comments