Wisconsin to Get $21M in New Lending Initiative

New Markets Tax Credits Stalled

U.S. Senate Passes Small Business Bill

The Senate passed legislation that aims to increase lending to small businesses and provide them with $12 billion in targeted tax breaks. The House passed a different version of the legislation in June, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber would quickly approve the Senate version in order to get the bill to President Barack Obama as soon as possible. Read more in the Business Journal of Milwaukee.

SBA Lending Down 29 Percent from ’09

The SBA approved $9.1 million in loans in Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Washington and Waukesha counties in August 2010, down 29 percent from the $12.7 million approved in August 2009. In late spring, the SBA ran out of money for a popular stimulus program that eliminated some loan fees and increased guarantees from 75 percent to 90 percent for most SBA loans, the Business Journal of Milwaukee noted.

FDIC Releases 2nd Quarter Report

According to FDIC’s report for the second quarter 2010, Wisconsin-based banks saw their past due or nonaccrual loans, as a percentage of total loans, fall to a median of 4.05 percent for the quarter, from 4.35 percent in the first quarter of the year and 4.44 percent in the second quarter of 2009. Banks’ Tier 1 leverage has risen to a median of 9.58 percent for the quarter, up from 9.51 percent in the first quarter. Median return on assets in the state was 0.66 percent, up from 0.62 percent in the first quarter. Net loans to assets remained at a median level of 70.8 percent for the quarter. Read more, including which Wisconsin banks earned the most for the quarter, in the Small Business Times of Milwaukee.

Commercial Lending Coming Back

Most banks in southeastern Wisconsin have cut back on their loans for commercial and industrial and commercial real estate in the past year. However, several bankers say that increased competition and other factors are likely to reverse those contractions in the year ahead, according to the Small Business Times of Milwaukee.

Associated Honored for Rural Lending

The state Department of Agriculture Division of Rural Development recently honored Associated Bank with a Platinum Level Lender in Wisconsin award. The award recognizes the bank’s production of more than $5 million in guaranteed rural housing loans for two years in a row, the Appleton Post-Crescent reported.

‘Public Support Essential’ for Lending

“Given the current tough economy, public support is becoming essential for Milwaukee developers who are trying to get lenders to take a risk on projects,” according to a story in the Business Journal of Milwaukee.

Column: Reform Bill Hurts Business Lending

“If small business is the foundation of our economy and community banks are the cornerstones to needed loans, one could formulate that fewer small business loans will be made and result in slower future economic growth” as a result of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory reform bill, writes Mike Stoetzel, a partner at Clifton Gunderson and the company’s financial institutions practice leader for Wisconsin, in the Small Business Times.

Entrepreneur Hits SBA Loan Snags

Todd Troha of Kenosha spent a year trying to get an SBA loan for a new day care center. “His market study, his presentation, his track record as a business owner, none of it seemed to matter,” according to a story in the Kenosha News. Eventually, He he got a regular, non-SBA bank loan for $1.2 million, and poured $1.4 million of his own money into the project, and the center is up and about to open. Read more in the Kenosha News.