This Economic Letter explores how the credit crunch might affect small business access to finance. While it is not possible to know how severe this credit crunch will become, researchers can explore how the crunch could affect small business finance. We begin our analysis by looking at how small...

With banks still facing challenges, alternative sources of credit are likely to play an increasingly important role in financing small businesses. The authors describe what ACCION USA has learned as its approach to microlending has evolved.

Small businesses have relied considerably on securitized markets for credit. The recent financial crisis led to a virtual cessation of securitization of some of the loans used by small businesses, such as commercial real estate mortgages, vehicle, and credit card loans. In addition, values of...

Information problems in small enterprise credit markets can result in a market equilibrium characterized by credit rationing. These information problems are potentially more severe during sharp economic downturns such as the recent Great Recession. Government interventions to alleviate credit...

This paper investigates whether small firms have experienced worse tightening of credit conditions during the Great Recession than large firms. To structure the empirical analysis, the paper first develops a simple model of bank loan pricing that derives both the interest rates on loans actually...

Remarks by Eric S. Rosengren, President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, at the Connecticuct Business & Industry Association and MetroHartford Alliance Economic Summit & Outlook, Hartford, Connecticut, January 6, 2012.

Over the last three years, the financial crisis and ensuing recession have led to tectonic shifts in the availability of credit, especially for small businesses. Data show that the number of loans to small businesses has dropped from 5.2 million loans in 2007 to 1.6 million in 2009. This trend...

Widespread losses in the housing and stock markets have taken their toll on many small business owners who have traditionally relied on personal assets for funding support.

This Economic Letter examines what the data say about the relationship between the degree of competition in and total volume of small business lending in local geographic banking markets.

States were granted authority to limit interstate branching following passage of Federal legislation in 1994, relaxing restrictions on geographical expansion by banks. We show that differences in state’s branching restrictions affect credit supply. In states more open to branching, small firms...