Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), JP Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) all made a pledge in late 2009 to increase small business lending in 2010. However, those initiatives follow a year that saw all three big banks cut lending since the data was required for reporting in April 2009. For the period of April to November 2009, small business lending fell roughly $3 billion at Wells Fargo, $2.4 billion at Bank of America and just shy of a billion at JP Morgan.
Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest small business lender pledged to increase lending by $3 billion in 2010, while Bank of America pledged to raise lending by $5 billion. JP Morgan pledged to increase lending $4 billion in 2010.
Americans are now more likely to keep a watch of those pledges being met following JP Morgan’s fourth quarter earnings report. The bank posted a $3.3 billion profit for the period and said compensation expenses rose 18 percent to $26.9 billion with most of the increase believed to be attributed to bonuses.
According to the Treasury Department total small business lending fell $12.5 billion for the 22 banks that received the most assistance from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. That puts small business lending down 4.6 percent for those banks from the period of April to November 2009. However, there was some improvement in November as five of the banks reported increased loan balances in November compared to April, which includes Wells Fargo.
On the flipside though, 10 of the 22 banks have reduced their small business loan balances every month since first reporting them in April.
