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Friday, October 23, 2009

Treasury: Open To Ideas On Small Bank Lending Plan

By Ronald D. Orol

MarketWatch Pulse

WASHINGTON - A key Treasury official on Friday told a gathering of community activists that he was open to suggestions about how to improve a White House initiative announced earlier this week that seeks to spur lending to small community banks and small businesses. "We made this clear that we were putting this out for comment and we'd like to get your recommendations," said Gene Sperling, senior advisor to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The Treasury Department released a plan Wednesday that included a provision allowing Community Development Financial Institutions to borrow capital from a Troubled Asset Relief Program at a 2% rate for eight years. The program seeks to support small business lending in troubled rural and urban areas. "When you have a recession as deep and traumatic as the one we are hopefully escaping from we know, low-income individuals are the ones that are hit hardest," Sperling said.

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