Bank of America and company ... funding "small businesses" that make $20 million per year.
Bank of America and Citibank, who collectively control about 20% of all deposits in the country, only made .6% of all SBA 7A loans in 2010.
What the hell? Those numbers are insane! Why do we bank with institutions that have completely abdicated any semblance of supporting small businesses? And it's not just BoA and Citi.
If you take the top 25 banks in the country as a whole, they control about 60% of all deposits and make only 20% of all SBA loans.
So then you wonder ... who provides the other 80 percent of small business loans? Credit unions and local community banks, that's who.
If you want economic revitalization in your community, then support those institutions that support your local small businesses.
Move your money (and debt), and encourage other individuals, organizations, churches, businesses and cities to do the same.
Update: When the Big Banks talk about lending to "small businesses," this is what they're talking about:
"The general rule is that when larger banks release their small-business lending statistics, [they are referring to] companies with revenues of $20 million or less," says Kassar. "And that, in my opinion, is not a small business." Kassar says data shows probably the vast majority of small-business loans made by big banks is to companies with revenues of $10 million to $20 million, shutting out the smaller companies.
So in reality, not so small.