A Short-Term Crunch For Small Business?

摘要

By extending some of the stimulus provisions that apply to Small BusinessrnAdministration-backed lending and by giving community banks access to Troubled Asset Relief Program funds, bills in both the House and Senate could improve small business' access to financing in 2010. But it may be impossible to reconcile the two bills quickly enough to prevent SBA lending from heading into another tailspin. "We arernin a very fragile economy," says James Ballentine, head of small business policy for the American Bankers Assn. "If the [stimulus] money is exhausted and can't be restored, we will see a sizable drop in SBA loans." On Nov. 24, the SBA announced that stimulus funding for SBA lending had dried up.