Money Morning Mailbag: Small Business Owners Find Hope in Big Banks’ Lending Promises

Larger financial institutions are increasing loans to big companies, but small business owners are still feeling the credit crunch. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke noted at a lending conference in July that there was a serious gap developing between large businesses that were building up cash and smaller ones still unable to get credit, and blamed tight credit for preventing small businesses from hiring. " Making credit accessible to sound small businesses is crucial to our economic recovery, " Bernanke said at the conference. According to the National Small Business Association's 2010 Mid-Year Economic Report , 41% of small businesses were still having trouble obtaining credit in July.