HAVING PROBLEMS BORROWING MONEY? YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONE.

Quarterly decline in bank lending is largest since 1984

Banks cut back the amount of money loaned to customers by $210.4 billion in the third quarter, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said. The 2.8% reduction marks the sharpest drop since at least 1984. The biggest banks, which received billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts, accounted for a disproportionately large part of the drop. "We need to see banks making more loans to their business customers," said Sheila Bair, the FDIC's chairwoman. The Washington Post (11/25) , CNNMoney.com/Fortune (11/24)

CREDIT TIGHT FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

Credit is still tight for small businesses, Fed survey finds

Bank lending is continuing to tighten for small and midsize businesses in the U.S., and most banks do not anticipate relief for commercial borrowers before the middle of 2010, according to a survey by the Federal Reserve. Fearful of losses on commercial real estate and credit card loans, banks are hanging onto their cash rather than lending it to businesses. "The banks are just deathly afraid," said Sam Thacker, a partner in Business Finance Solutions. "I don't see commercial banks coming back to the market anytime soon." The New York Times

LENDERS NOW HAVE TOUGHER CREDIT STANDARDS

(INC.com) -- The number of small-business loans continues to decline as banks raise standards on personal credit ratings, leaving fewer owners able to access working capital, according to lenders and policy experts. "Lending standards have tightened and loan demand is down considerably," Chad Moutray, the chief economist at the Small-Business Administration's Office of Advocacy, said this week at a roundtable on small-business credit held by the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington. Other panelists urged policymakers to look beyond traditional bank loans. "I think we need to get busy in developing game plans and getting more creative," said Andrew Sherman, a small-business policy expert at Dickstein Shapiro, a Washington-based law firm. Sherman called ongoing uncertainties in the financial market a "cloud that's getting in the way of our productivity and our competitiveness."