Saying it was determined to offer qualified women-owned businesses $2 billion in loans in 2007, with the goal of reaching those numbers by 2012, KeyBank (NYSE:KEY) recently announced that as of April 2009, they have already exceeded those goals, having over $2 billion in loans in place through the program. 

Now that KeyBank has reached those goals through their Key4Women program, they have now raised the bar and are committing to lend up to $3 billion in loans to women-based businesses by 2012, saying they believe this will help to stimulate economic growth and contribute to economic recovery for America.

The Key4Women program has been wildly successful for KeyBank, as at the time they instituted the program, the original goal of $1 billion in loans in 2005 was reached by 2007, where the new goal mentioned above was then committed to and reached far ahead of time.

Maria Coyne, Executive Vice President, Key4Women, said about the new goals in a press release:

“Providing more than $3 billion to qualified women-owned businesses since 2005 proves the strength of these companies. We continue to seek out and find women who are growing their businesses responsibly, even during these difficult economic times. We are pleased to be able to help these companies survive and thrive.”

While the Key4Women program is great for funding needs, it does a lot more than that, as it also helps teach women how to better run their businesses, better understand how to find solutions to business financial problems, and provides opportunities to network. Women can also get advice and service that is targeted to their specific business, and not only generalized data, which is some cases may not apply to their businesses.

“An important part of our mission at Key4Women is to provide women business owners with access to capital, to help them get the right kind of financing at the right time,” Coyne said. “According to research, women owned business are still less likely than men-owned businesses with comparable revenue to use or intend to use business credit or equity financing. Our message is: it’s okay to borrow strategically.”

Women either own or are majority owners of 10.1 million businesses in America, says  Center for Women’s Business Research, making up approximately 40 percent of all privately-owned companies, and generating $1.9 trillion in sales while employing 13 million workers, based on data from 2008.