LENDING SEASON

A strong and growing U.S. economy has created opportunities for small business lending. Bankers and others involved with business finance in the greater San Fernando Valley area said that clients feel good about their credit quality and ability to have their loan applications approved. Michael Vallante, regional director of the Small Business Administration for California and other western states, said he has noticed an optimism on the part of both borrowers and lenders. From the borrower standpoint, people are more willing to take a risk in starting a new business or expanding an existing one. Lenders, meanwhile, are approving more conventional loans and are willing to extend loans that previously they hadn’t been doing, Vallante said. “The combination of all of that has created an active and kind of a hot economy right now,” he noted. Rob Myers, a small business strategy leader in Los Angeles for Wells Fargo Bank, said it is a great time to be a small business owner in terms of access to credit and the climate of competition among banks that want to approve loans.