FDIC and National Federation of Independent

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This program which in most cases allows private investment funds to leverage a to match for every dollar they raise can put up to billion per year into high growth companies. And it does so at no cost to taxpayers. This public private partnership is a good example of government and the private sector working together Mills says. This program has helped finance some of the best known companies in the country when they were in their infancy including Apple and Intel. It s important that we figure out how to do more of this and SBIC may be a good model to build on.

Traditional Bank Lending Is Still Critical But A Gap Exists Mills believes traditional bank lending has a critical place in the competitiveness discussion as well. The level of dependence of small firms on bank credit is estimated Chinese Overseas America Number Data to be as high as percent according to separate studies by the Federal Deposit Insurance Commission  Businesses NFIB . Outside of savings and home equity loans bank loans have been the critical source of capital for small businesses Mills says. When Mills arrived at SBA in the nation was in recession and lending to small businesses was at a standstill. Under her leadership the agency took critical steps to raise the SBA guarantee on loans made by private banks and also reduce fees. The impact was immediate. It was like we turned on a light switch she recalls snapping her fingers. When I left four years later we had seen two record years of doing billion each year in loan guarantees.





SBA guaranteed loans make up only a small portion of the market however. In the broader market there s still a critical problem. While the amount of loan capital for small businesses has continued to increase the number of individual loans has not. What this points to is a gap in small dollar loans which are important to startups and businesses in underserved communities. These businesses often need or less to get started and keep running but in today s market they continue to have trouble securing those small dollar loans.