The credit crunch has made it much tougher to receive a personal or small-business loan from most banks, but lending isn't entirely dead.

On Wednesday, FOX Business checked in with Diamond Bank in Chicago -- a small bank that has remained profitable during the recession and did not accept a penny from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Diamond Bank continues to make big loans to its customers even in the face of a down economy, and deals specifically in lending for entrepreneurs, and handles mostly commercial transactions.

Matt Gambs, CEO and President of Diamond Bank, said that each client comes into the bank one at a time, which gives them a feeling of exclusivity.

Gambs said Diamond Bank was able to be successful in the recession because “it was a market that we knew and understood and wanted to be in.” Gambs said that he’d known most of his clients for a long time and knew their businesses firsthand.

Dominick Bonfiglio, a Diamond Bank customer and owner of furniture business Mobilia, said he is planning to take out a $1.2 million loan from Diamond Bank and get a $300,000 line of credit.

Credit is "our lifeblood,” Bonfiglio said. “Without our line of credit we couldn’t buy materials or make payroll, it’s very important that we have that.”

Another entrepreneur, Gelene Brown, owner of a green construction company Stinnette and Brown, said she and her partners went to 10 banks looking for funding and were turned away at each one, but Diamond Bank was different.

“The difference is a belief in entrepreneurs, a belief that small businesses really do employ America, and they see our growth and the potential there,” she said.

JT Stinnette, also a partner in the company said that she saw potential in the stimulus package that provides for green construction in America. “We are the manifestation of what the administration is calling for, and green jobs are the way to go,” she said.

Isaac Stinnette, another owner of Stinnette and Brown, explained why he thought the trio were turned away by other banks before coming to Diamond.

“I think the number one reason was the economic circumstances and the economic crisis in the country were used as a crutch to dismiss us and say, ‘Well, come back when things get better.’”