Last year, at a manufacturing company in Ohio, U.S. Small Business Administration Administrator Karen Gordon Mills and Vice President Joe Biden announced a renewed commitment by several U.S. banks to increase small business lending.  A group of 13 banks, including Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase & Company, Citigroup, TD Bank, and US Bank, vowed to bolster loans issued to small business owners by $20 billion over the next three years.

Today, one year into their three-year commitment, the SBA reports an $11 billion increase in lending by the 13 banks.  The Financial Services Roundtable, the American Bankers Association, and the Consumer Bankers Association have also issued a statement echoing the SBA’s early assessment.  The statement claims that the banks have already surpassed 50% of their three-year lending goal.

Karen Gordon Mills says of the lending increase, “The continued success of this commitment serves as an important example of what is possible when the public and private sectors work together to assist America’s small business owners and entrepreneurs.”

The public renewal of American banks’ commitment to small business owners, and their cooperation with the SBA, is attributed by Mills to their shared recognition of the vital role that small businesses must play in the ongoing recovery of the U.S. economy.  Over the past 20 years, two out of every three net new jobs in the U.S. have been created by small businesses, according to the SBA.  More than 50% of all working Americans are owners or employees of a small business.

The goal of the three year, $20 billion lending pledge is simple: foster the continued growth and expansion of American small businesses as an adrenaline shot to the heart of the U.S. economy.

Source:

Mills, Karen. “SBA and America’s Banks are Increasing Small Business Lending.” SBA.gov, 9/24/12.