Small-business finance Markets for minnows
THE global credit crunch was universally painful. The recovery has been uneven. Many large companies can once again raise money with ease in capital markets. But life remains much tougher for the small and medium-sized firms that mostly rely on banks and commercial-finance companies to provide them with loans. As these lenders have cut back, terms have tightened: spreads on loans of between $100,000 and $1m rose by a percentage point in 2009, reaching their highest levels in over a decade, according to the Federal Reserve.