Introduction to the Report

Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. They are leaders in innovation, critical engines of job growth and springboards to recovery. To play this important role, however, small businesses need access to financing.

At the panels and the breakout groups convened as part of the Small Business Financing Forum – and in comments we received afterwards – participants were asked to present their recommendations concerning how financing could be made more available to small businesses to spur job creation and thereby strengthen the recovery. Many of the ideas listed in this report are not ones the Administration supports or agrees with, but we believe that the best policies are made when we engage in an open dialogue. As a result, we wanted to present for discussion the broad range of views set forth that pertained directly to access to credit or job creation. In addition, we have included as part of this report the remarks presented in our opening session by Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila Bair, Senate Committee on Small Business Chairwoman Mary Landrieu and House Committee on Small Business Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez, as well as by Secretary Geithner and Administrator Mills.

The Administration has already provided important lifelines to small businesses. We worked with Congress to provide targeted tax relief to small businesses, letting them write off more of their expenses and earn instant refunds on their taxes by “carrying back” their losses five years, instead of two. As part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the Administration temporarily raised guarantees and lowered fees for the SBA’s flagship programs, helping to drive up average weekly loan volume nearly 80 percent compared to the weeks before the act was passed. We have helped revive securitization markets that were a critical source of credit for small businesses until the crisis, with the volume of loans sold on these markets nearly four times higher in October than in January. And we have set forth plans to provide low cost capital to community banks that are committed to increasing their small business lending, and to providing additional resources for Community Development Financial Institutions that serve America’s hardest‐hit communities.

With financial institutions tightening lending standards in this recent economic crisis, the small businesses that depend on them for credit have been hit particularly hard. We remain committed to working with Congress and the small business and lending communities to do more to help ensure that much needed credit is flowing in a responsible way so that small businesses can once again lead the country out of recession and back to prosperity. This report is being transmitted to the President as one step in ensuring that he has at his disposal the views of a wide array of small business owners, lenders and policymakers about how best to help America’s small businesses recover and, with them, the nation.

Timothy F. Geithner, Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury
Karen G. Mills, Administrator, Small Business Administration

Complete Report PDF Format

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