SBA Names 20 Community Lenders for New Loan Pilot

20 First Community lending organizations selected to start making loans up to $200,000 under new Intermediary Lending Pilot Program

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Startups, newly established and growing small businesses now have a new source of financing backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration as 20 community organizations have been funded by SBA to start making loans up to $200,000 to qualifying small businesses.

Authorized under the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, the new Intermediary Lending Pilot Program will provide direct loans up to $1 million to 20 community organizations or intermediaries in fiscal year 2011, which in turn will use those funds to help finance small businesses, mostly in underserved markets.

Designed to expand access to capital to small businesses and drive economic growth and job creation, the program will fund 20 additional community lenders in FY 2012.  The program has an additional year of authority in FY 2013 subject to appropriation by Congress.

“The Intermediary Lending Program is an important new tool to support businesses in underserved markets,” said SBA Deputy Administrator Marie Johns.  “Partnering with community lenders will increase points of access to capital for startups and businesses that have been disproportionately affected by the recession.”

One goal of the pilot program over the next two-to-three years is to assess the intermediary model as an effective tool for increasing lower-dollar lending to small businesses and startups, particularly those in traditionally underserved communities.

The first 20 community lending organizations funded by SBA to participate in ILP are:

Ben Franklin Technology Partners      Philadelphia, PA
Biddeford-Saco Area EDC                 Saco, ME
Business Finance Group, Inc             Fairfax, VA
Central Minnesota DC                       Andover, MN
Clay-Platte Development Corp.          Kansas City, MO
Colorado Lending Source, Ltd.          Denver, CO
Cooperative Fund of New England     Amherst, MA
Fresno County EDC                         Fresno, CA
Grand Central Texas DC                   Austin, TX
Grow South Dakota                         Sisseton, SD
Mahoning Valley EDC                        Youngstown, OH
NC Minority Support Center              Durham, NC
Ohio Comm. Dev. Finance Fund         Columbus, OH
Pacific Community Ventures              San Francisco, CA
PIDC Regional DC                            Philadelphia, PA
Rural Nevada DC                             Ely, NV
Seattle Economic Dev. Fund             Seattle, WA
ShoreBank Enterprise Group            Ilawco, WA
TELACU Community Capital              Los Angeles, CA
UP Business Capital                         Marquette, MI

For more information about the ILP program, visit the program website at http://www.sba.gov/content/intermediary-lending-pilot. To locate your local SBA office, visit www.sba.gov/about-offices-list/2.

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