Main Street Monday – White House Holds Roundtable About Access to Capital for Small Businesses

January 30, 2023

Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor

Main Street Monday – White House Holds Roundtable About Access to Capital for Small Businesses

Last week, a roundtable was held to discuss capital access, technical assistance, and support for small businesses. The Administrator of the SBA, Isabel Guzmán, and many government officials met with small business leaders, advocates, and mission leaders with expertise in reaching minority-owned small businesses.

During the roundtable, Administrator Guzmán gave an overview of SBA’s proposed rule to lift the moratorium on Small Business Lending Company licenses and the proposed rule to streamline and modernize affiliation, lending criteria, and employee ownership requirements for SBA’s loan programs.

Also, participants spoke about the Treasury launching an interagency task to make historic investments in CDFIs and identify gaps in services for underserved communities. In addition, the Treasury’s Emergency Capital Investment Program, CDFI Fund, and State Small Business Credit Initiative have extended billions of dollars to small and minority-owned businesses and consumers.

Other investments made to support small businesses include:

• In 2022, the Emergency Capital Investment Program invested $8.38 billion to support the efforts of CDFIs and MDIs who provide loans, grants, and assistance to underserved markets.
• The CDFI Fund provided $5 billion in New Market Tax Credit allocations, $355 million through the Bond Guarantee program, and over $580 through other programs. This Fund also announced the CDFI Equitable Recovery Program which aims to provide $1.75 in funding and received almost 700 applications.
• The SBA Community Navigators Program awarded $100 million to all states and Puerto Rico in 2021. In August 2022, Community Navigators helped secure $133 in funding, trained more than 170,000, and provided 30,000 hours of one-on-one counseling.

Source:
White House Press Release