Wisconsin banks who received capital through the Small Business Lending Fund have increased small business lending by $45.3 million since 2010, according to a report from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Wisconsin lenders included the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp., a Community Development Loan Fund in Milwaukee.
The SBLF aims to encourage banks to lend more to small businesses, who in turn create jobs. About half of Americans are employed by a small business, and those companies create about 60 percent of gross jobs, according to the Treasury.
So far, 332 banks throughout the country have received $4 billion from the fund and $5.2 billion has, in turn, been lent to small businesses.
“Today’s report is more evidence that the Small Business Lending Fund is doing what the Administration intended it to do,” said Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin. “Community banks are leveraging SBLF capital to support new lending to local entrepreneurs so that they can create and grow jobs in their neighborhoods.”
Banks with less than $10 billion in assets can qualify for SBLF funding, and the dividend rate paid on the funds diminishes with increased small business lending.
The SBLF is part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package and was created as part of the Small Business Jobs Act, which became law in 2010.
