SBA head not surprised to hear that banks are reining in credit

Small-business owners report that banks are reining in credit in the wake of turmoil in the nation’s financial markets, the new regional director of the Small Business Administration said.

“What I’m hearing is probably not a surprise,” said Russell Smith, who took over recently as director of the SBA’s Region VIII. “In these uncertain times, small businesses are getting squeezed. They’re finding that lenders are retrenching a bit on their lending practices,” he said.

“But we in the SBA are absolutely here to help small businesses. We’re active in working with lenders to make loans available to credit-worthy businesses. We’ve been active on a number of fronts to make that happen.”

Montana SBA http://www.sba.gov/localresources/district/mt/index.html

Region VIII http://www.sba.gov/localresources/regionaloffices/region8/index.html

By TOM HOWARD – Billings Gazette

Full Story: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2008/09/21/weekly_features/business/70bz_080921_sba.txt