Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today announced that Kinderhook Bank Corp. is receiving $7 million in funding provided through the Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF). The SBLF, established as part of the Small Business Jobs Act that Senator Gillibrand voted to pass, encourages community banks to increase their lending to small businesses, helping them expand their operations and create new jobs.
Last year, Senator Gillibrand fought hard to include measures that enhance lending from community banks and credit unions in the small business jobs package that Congress passed and President Obama signed into law.
“My number one focus is creating good-paying, family-supporting jobs for New York,” Senator Gillibrand said. “But I know that government doesn’t create jobs – businesses do. And small businesses are the most powerful economic engine we have. When we increase capital for small businesses, we can help get more new businesses off the ground, help existing businesses grow and thrive, and create more good-paying jobs.”
Small businesses are responsible for half of all private sector jobs and 70 percent of all new jobs created in the last decade. But nearly 60 percent of all small business report having trouble getting the credit they need. The SBLF helps small businesses meet this challenge by providing capital to community banks that hold under $10 billion in assets. The dividend rate a community bank pays on SBLF funding is reduced as that bank increases its lending to small businesses – providing a strong incentive for new lending to small businesses so they can expand and create jobs.
The SBLF is part of a broad agenda to help small businesses access the capital they need to invest and hire. The State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), which is also a key part of the Small Business Jobs Act, allocates $1.5 billion to new and existing state programs that will leverage private financing to spur $15 billion in new lending to small businesses and small manufacturers.