community banks

Washington DC (Press Release – January 26, 2012) – Opinion polling released today shows 90 percent of small business owners see the availability of credit as a problem for small business, and they strongly support increasing the lending authority of community banks and credit unions.

Small business owners also support current proposals being debated in Congress that aim to boost the economy and create jobs.

In my interview with economist and scholar Umair Haque last week, Haque said one of the ways Americans could take back power from Wall Street is by divesting from megabanks and putting their money into smaller community banks and credit unions.

As it turns out, North Dakota beat us to the punch.

Washington (PRESS RELEASE – June 23, 2010) — The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed the “Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF) Act,” H.R. 5297, by a vote of 241-182.

The legislation will aid small businesses in securing capital through new community bank incentives, support for state lending initiatives and by opening venture capital markets to small businesses.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS - The Obama Administration's proposal to funnel $30 billion in TARP receipts to community banks to spur lending to small businesses could do more to help the economy if it focused on the U.S.

Small Business Administration lending programs themselves, says Christopher G. Hurn, chief executive officer of Mercantile Capital Corporation in Altamonte Springs.

Washington (PRESS RELEASE – February 9, 2010) — Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Chair Mary L.

Landrieu, D-La., who has shepherded small business job-creation measures through her Committee, made the following comment in regard to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s unveiling of the $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund, a fund that directs money to community banks for small business lending:

Fed up with your bank? Arianna Huffington has a solution: Change to a community bank. In a post written with economist Rob Johnson at the Huffington Post, she advocated that people close their accounts at the big four banks and open accounts at small community banks.

Community banks have hardly suffered from the credit crisis, in part because the industry prefers its business to be boring — and safe.