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Informing the public about the Federal Reserve

Small businesses create many of the jobs in our country, so their success is crucial to a healthy economy. The Federal Reserve has taken numerous actions to understand and promote lending to creditworthy small businesses:

We have worked with other federal banking regulators to issue interagency policy statements to reinforce our position that, while maintaining appropriately prudent standards, lenders should do all they can to meet the legitimate needs of creditworthy borrowers, including small businesses. In addition, we have held training sessions for lenders in order to promote awareness about both the credit environment and available lending guidance and resources. And we have continued to train our bank examiners to use a balanced approach to reviewing banks' credit policies and practices with respect to small business lending.
We have collected firsthand insights from small business owners, lenders, and others in a series of meetings held during 2010 that culminated in a capstone forum, Addressing the Financing Needs of Small Businesses. These diverse perspectives, reported in a summary document (105 KB PDF), provided us with a nuanced understanding of the challenges facing small businesses and helped us identify areas where we might be able to do more. Further, the meetings provided us with opportunities to forge new partnerships with key stakeholders. We have several initiatives underway to address issues identified through the meetings, and our regional offices continue to organize forums and activities in their communities as a way to gather current information and knowledge about the financing needs of small businesses.
Along with the other federal banking agencies, the Federal Reserve is helping the Treasury Department to implement its Small Business Lending Fund program (SBLF), which was established by the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. The SBLF is intended to facilitate new lending to creditworthy small business borrowers by providing affordable capital support to community banks.