Speaking of re-authorization, last week, the House Small Business Committee continued down their own path to SBA re-authorization — having already dealt with the entrepreneurial development programs — with a look at the SBA’s access to capital programs. The Committee held a somewhat lengthy hearing with two panels of witnesses, one of which held representatives [...]

The SBA Office of Advocacy released its annual report on small and microbusiness lending last week, for the data year encompassing June 2007 to June 2008. As the economy slowed through the second half of the period, small business lending overall slowed significantly. Dollar volume was up by 4%, or $26.7 billion, but that was [...]

The Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights Act (H.R. 627) passed the House more or less painlessly, after the consideration of a scant sixteen amendments or so, at the end of last month. Now, it’s the Senate’s turn. That body is currently considering the Credit CARD Act (S.414), which was offered by Senate Banking Committee Chairman [...]

During the period between June 2006 and June 2007, the number of small business loans increased by a robust 15%, according to the SBA Office of Advocacy’s annual survey of small business lending in the United States, unsurprisingly entitled Small Business and Micro Business Lending in the United States for Data Years 2006-2007, which was [...]

Yes, fans, there’s yet another spat over loan caps going on, this time over the Community Express pilot version of the 7(a) loan program. On the surface, at least, the matters appears to be fairly straightforward. The Small Business Act has a provision in Section 7(a) that prohibits more than 10% of the number of [...]

Small firms that are most likely to be using debt financing are younger, smaller, less profitable, less liquid, and less credit worthy. At the same time, firms with more tangible assets and less personal liability on the part of the business owner are also more likely to opt for debt financing. In fact, the most [...]

Lawmakers at a House subcommittee hearing last week seem to have uncovered the real problem with the SBA loan guaranteed program, which has seen an 18% decline in loan volume so far this fiscal year. First, a handful of large banks that happened to be hip-deep in the sub-prime mortgage mess were making 60% of [...]

As advertised, last week the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship held a hearing to look into the impact of the credit crunch on small businesses. Setting aside the argument about whether, in fact, there is a small business credit crunch, it seems that SBA Administrator Steve Preston is concerned about ‘very small businesses’ [...]

In its latest member survey, released last week, the National Association for the Self-Employed decided to ask how the housing market meltdown is effecting microbusiness owners. More than eight in ten microbusiness owners also own their home and a sizable 59% of them have fixed rate mortgages. That does not mean, however, that nobody is [...]

Last week, the House Small Business Committee finally got around to holding a hearing to examine the critical role credit cards have come to play in small business financing. It turned out to be an unexpected pleasure to sit through, thanks to testimony by Dr. Robert Lahm, associate professor of entrepreneurship from Middle Tennessee State [...]