Released: February 09, 2010

Credit unions seek more business loans

Source: Binyamin Appelbaum, Washington Post (Free Registration)

The names of small businesses seeking loans are scrawled across a whiteboard in the Bethesda offices of Mid-Atlantic Financial Partners: A Denny’s franchisee with plans for a new restaurant, the owner of a limousine fleet hoping to consolidate his auto loans, a government contractor seeking a line of credit to fund expansion, the owners of a medical office building in Leesburg looking for a mortgage.

Most of the businesses came here after their requests for financing were rejected by one or more banks. Mid-Atlantic is not a bank: It is mostly owned and funded by a local credit union, Mid-Atlantic Federal Credit Union. And at a time when banks are making fewer business loans, Mid-Atlantic is expanding dramatically, lending $32 million to small businesses last year and planning to lend $50 million this year.

“Credit unions by their nature are designed to serve the underserved,” said Frank Amantia, president of Mid-Atlantic Financial.

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