WASHINGTON – United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., Chair of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, today lauded the findings of a new report released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury showing that, in Louisiana, participants receiving capital through the Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF) boosted small business lending by $626.2 million over baseline levels, including a $95.4 million increase in the third quarter of 2013.

Nationwide, SBLF participants have increased their small business lending $11.2 billion, also over baseline levels, and $819 million over the prior quarter. The reported aggregate lending increase represents an estimated 51,700 additional loans to small businesses according to earlier loan data from SBLF’s First Annual Lending Survey.

“When I took over as Chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee in January 2009, America was facing the worst economic recession since the Great Depression,” Senator Landrieu said.  “The U.S. economy lost 818,000 jobs that month alone and nearly 80% of the job losses caused by the economic downturn came from small businesses.  That is why I led the effort to pass the bipartisan Small Business Jobs Act, which included the Small Business Lending Fund.  The SBLF continues to get capital into the hands of America’s job creators, who continue to lead America’s economic recovery.”  

The SBLF was introduced by Sen. Landrieu and a bipartisan group of senators on July 21, 2010 as an amendment to Sen. Landrieu’s Small Business Jobs Act (SBJA).  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found the SBLF has no cost to taxpayers.  The SBLF was signed into law as part of the SBJA on September 27, 2010. 

Treasury invested more than $4 billion in 332 institutions through the SBLF.  Collectively, these institutions operate in more than 3,000 locations across 48 states.  This report includes information on the 307 institutions that continued to participate in the program as of October 31, 2013.

Click here to read the report.

 

 

 

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