Enabling Small Lenders To Keep Economy Moving
482 views · Published 23 December 2009 · 5:34 · Indexed 20 September 2026
Channel: The Uptake by Bridgemakers · 2009 · News & Politics
President Obama says small banks were not the cause of the financial collapse, and need help in getting loans out to businesses that can make money. He also says he will remain in Washington until the Senate completes its work on the health care bill on Christmas eve. Transcript: THE PRESIDENT: All right, everybody. Well, it's good to see all of you. I just concluded a meeting with 12 regional community banks to have the same conversation that I had with some of the larger banks last week and that I've been having with CEOs of companies across the country over the last year, and that is how do we continue to consolidate the gains we've made over the course of this year in terms of economic recovery, but most importantly, how we move forward over the next year so that businesses are getting the capital that they need and that we are starting to see people hired again, people able to finance their homes, finance college educations and so forth. Community banks serve a vital function all across the country. They are folks who know their customers, don't just lend them money but also provide them advice if they're entrepreneurs and getting started. They are intimately woven into the fabric of the community. I think it's fair to say that most of these community banks were not engaged in some of the hugely risky activities that helped to precipitate the financial crisis. At the same time, they continue to try to do their best in their local and regional markets to make sure that businesses who are now being affected by the overall recession are able to pick themselves back up. What I did was to go around the room and to hear from each of them. Not all these communities are the same -- we've got everything from Kalamazoo to Harlem to small communities in Arkansas that focus mostly on farm loans. There were some general themes that were out there -- one, that there are businesses that are looking for loans out there that are profitable, that are ready to make money. And the key is to match them up ... Distributed by Tubemogul.
