Ruth Lee
While the Administration and Congress are “trying” to encourage banks to expand lending to small businesses…you know, that whole “lifeblood of the economy” thing, it is important to note that having the words mortgage, lending or financial in your name or anywhere on your application is an almost automatic exclusion from any/all forms of credit, even equipment leasing. Two years after the meltdown, mortgage firms and mortgage industry vendors have no outlet for traditional small business financing. Perfect credit and strong financials are secondary to the scarlet “M” (mortgage) on any SBA application…even if you don’t actually originate or sell mortgage loans. Now is a time when the industry could really use the strength of the business models that weathered an epic crisis to re-establish credibility and sobriety in the small and mid-cap market… but if the sole criterion to exclude credit eligibility is being even tangentially related to mortgage origination, maybe we should supplant the word mortgage/financial/lender/loan with the word “plague” for a better response…
