New Canaan-based BNC Financial Group Inc. became one of the first two Connecticut banks approved to lend money under a federal program to spur small-business lending, getting $11 million.
BNC is the parent company for Bank of New Canaan, Bank of Fairfield and Stamford First Bank. BNC had nearly $39 million in small-business loans outstanding in the second quarter, as tracked by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
In an article in the Aug. 22 edition, the Fairfield County Business Journal reported that the U.S. Department of the Treasury had yet to reveal funding for a Connecticut bank under the Small Business Lending Fund, according to the most recent data published by the U.S. Treasury through Aug. 2. The following week, however, BNC revealed it was a recipient of SBLF funding and in an updated list in mid-August the Treasury Department disclosed that tranche, as well as one in the amount of $9 million for Simsbury-based SBT Bancorp Inc.
BNC CEO Jay Forgotson could not be reached for comment at deadline. In an Aug. 8Â press release, he said the SBLF funding marks an important milestone for the company but did not immediately state specifics on a timeline for how the bank would use the funding.
Fairfield County community banks held steady the number of small-business loans outstanding in the second quarter, but as a group contracted the dollar amounts on the street by 2.7 percent, according to FDIC data.
That amounts to $21.4 million less spending power in the hands of area small businesses.
The countywide decline follows a first quarter in which Fairfield County community banks increased their small-business lending by $33 million, and lends credence to surveys by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York of tightening credit for small businesses.
Speaking at Dartmouth College in mid-August, General Electric Co. CEO Jeff Immelt said increasing financing for small business was among four things he thought the nation should target in the short run with an eye on creating jobs, along with reducing the time needed for regulatory approvals, increasing infrastructure investment and training workers.
“Small business has gotten crushed in this downturn,” Immelt said. “Find a way to get financing to small business, because they”™re not getting it today.”
