NSBA Responds to President's Call for Small Business Capital

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Responding to President Barack
Obama's announcement today of a new initiative to enhance small businesses'
access to affordable capital, NSBA President Todd McCracken registered his
support of the administration's actions, but urged further action.

"The most critical component for small-business owners as they make their way
out of a recession is finding the resources to enable them to grow," stated
McCracken. "The initiatives and reforms announced today by the administration
will be very helpful to many small businesses, and I applaud their efforts.
However, more can and must be done."

The administration's new initiative includes increased loan caps for SBA
lending programs and an infusion of lower-cost capital to community banks,
both steps in the right direction. Critical to its success, however, is the
timeliness in which the measures are implemented, as well as assurances that
any capital provided to community banks will be used for small-business
lending--not simply shoring-up their balance sheets.

Since early in 2008, NSBA has been warning of the dire implications of the
credit crunch on small business. Particularly now, as the U.S. economy begins
to show a few glimmers of hope, small business access to affordable capital is
the lynchpin to a rapid and sustainable economic recovery.

Unfortunately, today's entrepreneurs are severely limited in their ability to
finance new businesses through their historical avenues: leveraging the value
of their home, borrowing from friends and family, or getting a traditional
loan. Compounding matters, the Federal Reserve reported in its July 2009
Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey that banks continue to tighten standards
and terms on all major types of loans to businesses, and expect these
tightened standards to remain throughout 2010.

"The overwhelming majority of small-business owners surveyed in July by
NSBA--80 percent--have been negatively impacted by the credit crunch," stated
NSBA Chair Keith Ashmus, co-founding partner of Frantz Ward LLP, in Cleveland,
Ohio. "The time for action is now."

An outspoken advocate on the issue, NSBA has developed a comprehensive list of
short-term and long-term fixes that will help ease capital markets for small
businesses. The proposed fixes are the centerpiece of a new NSBA initiative,
Credit NOW, Growth Tomorrow designed to offer solutions and proposals for
ensuring the long-term viability of America's small businesses.

Since 1937, NSBA has advocated on behalf of America's entrepreneurs. A
staunchly nonpartisan organization, NSBA reaches more than 150,000 small
businesses nationwide and is proud to be the nation's first small-business
advocacy organization. For more information, please visit www.nsba.biz.

SOURCE National Small Business Association

Molly Brogan of NSBA, +1-202-552-2904, press@nsba.biz