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Through a close reading of scattered, disparate, and largely unconnected secondary sources, supplemented with the analysis of primary sources, and backed by economic theory, this paper explores the origins, development, and socio-economic impact of so-called cosignatory lending institutions. These historical institutions were designed to issue small loans to small businesses and households and shared a reliance on cosigners to secure loans and on weekly instalments to repay them. Their shared lending format was flexible enough to display regional variations and this enabled cosignatory lending institutions to operate in societies characterized by notable differences in wealth and economic structure. It also allowed cosignatory lending institutions to fare better in a more urbanized, heterogeneous context than the more well-known credit cooperatives. As such, this systematic overview helps us better understand how credit markets were made more inclusive in urban contexts, which historical circumstances played a role in this, and perhaps even whether and how the success of cosignatory lending institutions may be replicated in present-day developed and less-developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effectiveness of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) in facilitating small business lending to lower-income neighborhoods. Taking advantage of an exogenous policy shock that resulted in neighborhood-level changes in CRA eligibility, we identify changes in small business lending in tracts that became CRA eligible and CRA ineligible and compare these with control groups constructed in two ways. The results of our difference-in-differences analysis uniformly show increases in the number of loans associated with CRA eligibility, which is consistent with a view that the CRA promotes small business lending in lower-income neighborhoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that starting in early spring of 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak caused unprecedented widespread disruptions to economic activity that had a significant impact on businesses and state and local municipalities, as well as individuals. To mitigate some of these disruptions and provide relief to entities affected by the economic fallout from the measures to contain COVID-19.

The number of community banks in the United States has been declining steadily for decades, as has the share of total industry assets held by these banks. Because community banks play an outsized role in originating loans to small businesses, a continued decline in their numbers and asset holdings could constrain entrepreneurs' access to credit--and, accordingly, constrain growth in the overall economy. One possible explanation for the declining number of community banks is that larger banks have benefitted from economies of scale and outpaced them in efficiency. Stefan Jacewitz examines how the efficiency of community banks has changed since the 2008 global financial crisis. He finds that community banks have in fact seen substantial improvements in efficiency, partially attributable to a relative decline in their brick-andmortar expenses. His results suggest that community banks have made and continue to make meaningful gains even as the banking landscape evolves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reasonable credit scoring model must have strong default identification ability, which means the credit scoring can effectively distinguish between defaulting and nondefaulting customers. The premise to determine the credit score of small enterprises is to determine the weight of indicators. This paper studies 3,045 Chinese small business loans, and two novel weighting methods "Wilks' Lambda method" and "AUC value method" are proposed, The greater the weight they meet, the greater the ability of default identification. The five weighting methods of "Wilks' lambda method," "AUC value method," "G1 method," "entropy method," and "mean square variance method" are compared. An important contribution of the paper is to discover that Wilks' Lambda method is the most effective method for small business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is a primary source of livelihood for more than 75% of the Assam’s population in Northeast India, however 98.9% of farmers belong to the category less than 1 to 2 hectares of land per family in Dibrugarh district of Assam. This research aims at improving livelihood of these farmers through exploring the opportunities and constraints of their resources. The study conducted 250 personal interviews with heads of households of small farmers cultivating rice (the staple food crop) who were chosen by the method of purposive sampling among three villages of Dibrugarh district. The data were collected by personal schedule along with observation, and descriptive statistics were used for data analysis. The results revealed that the main constraints were: irrigation and drainage problems, small size of the agricultural land, lack access to the inputs of production, low productivity, high loss of production, lack of access to finance, lack of practical skills training for modern agriculture and marketing, lack of social organisations. However the key opportunities were: depending on rainfed agriculture, high fertility of the soil, diversification of family income, high demand of the rice in the market, low illiteracy rate, forming a cooperative association and the homogeneity of population, which represents their strong cultural bond. The study concluded some recommendations: offering training and consulting services by the Agricultural Extension agency, establishing a good infrastructure and facilitating soft loans for agriculture and small business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing proportion of UK bank lending to the financial sector reached a peak in 2007 just before the onset of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). This marks a trend in the dwindling amount of bank lending to private sector non-financial corporations (PNFCs), which was exacerbated with the Great Recession. Many central banks aimed to revive bank lending with quantitative easing (QE) and unconventional monetary policy. We propose an agent based computational economics (ACE) model which combines the main factors in the economic environment of QE and Basel regulatory framework to analyse why UK banks do not prioritize lending to non-financial businesses. The lower bond yields caused by QE encourage big firms to substitute away from bank borrowing to bond issuance. In addition, the risk weight regime of Basel II/III on capital induces banks to favour mortgages over business loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The combination of lower bond yields and Basel II/III capital requirements on banks, which, respectively, impact demand and supply of credit in the UK, plays a role in the drop of bank loans to businesses. The ACE model aims to reinstate policy regimes that form constraints and incentives for the behaviour of market participants to provide the causal factors in observed macro-economic phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing non‐performing assets (NPAs) and to meet the higher funding needs, India witnessed the biggest consolidation in public sector banks. In India the surging NPAs is long witnessed concern and major economic reforms were initiated in Indian banking to curb the issue. The recent merger has brought in a major policy concern with this consolidation which is availability of loans to smaller businesses. The paper analyses the impact of banks consolidation on Indian economy by considering both positive as well as negative aspects of banks mergers. The paper also presents the history of Indian banking and recommending a way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on political parties may differ in the details, but one can find broad agreement around the intended outcome of an economic rescue it's to bring the crisis quickly to heel. Topics include the charge for policymakers is to deliver large-scale economic interventions that will combat the troubles at hand, and the Troubled Asset Relief Program and related stimulus placed trillions of dollars into new and largely untested policies.

Previous research shows that small business lending declined significantly during the Great Recession. In this paper, we examine the effects of small business lending on measures of socioeconomic development in U.S. counties during this time period. Citing literature which shows that small business owners in nonmetropolitan counties depend on traditional bank loans more than their metropolitan counterparts, we propose that the effects of small business lending will be more important in nonmetropolitan counties. We utilize data from Community Reinvestment Act Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council and U.S. Census. We use two measures of small business lending: the average per loan small business lending from 2005-2010 and change in small business lending amount in the county between 2005 and 2010. We find that the per loan average amount of small business lending between 2005-2010 increased the 2010 median family income and 2010 county poverty rate in nonmetropolitan counties. The effects in metropolitan counties show no benefits of small business lending. Change in the amount of business loan had no consistent effects. Implications for existing and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses public purpose finance (PPF), particularly the role of the U.S. federal government as lenders. Also cited are the PPFs used by the government to provide loans to private borrowers in areas like education, small business, agriculture, and education, as well as the importance of PPF in macroeconomics and racial inequality resolution.

The article presents the impact of Covid-19 on U.S. veterinary profession. Topics include helping veterinarians for implementing best practices and alleviating client and employee concerns; keeping a ratio of nonveterinarian staff members to veterinarians maximizing labor utilization; and decreasing in several key areas during the survey period including client traffic, operating hours, and revenue.

The small and medium enterprises are the pillars of economic development in India. With over 30 million units of SME units in India, they are contributing to 45% in country's GDP. The importance of SMEs in manufacturing is mainly due to the volume of units that exist in this category. Recently government has taken several steps in boosting the manufacturing in India, "Make in India" is one such initiative and National Manufacturing policy has been announced to revamp the sector. One of the major hindrances in expansion is lack of timely and sufficient funds. Today the total gap of SME funding is estimated to be approximately $126 billion. Out of which the debt gap is approximately $84 billion (Ravij Janjanan, 2014). Research is undertaken to know the determinants of credit in Mumbai city which is the financial capital of India. Present paper studied the determining factors of credit in SME sector in Mumbai by applying Binary logit regression model. Data was collected from supply side through administered questionnaire. Factors were identified through focus group interviews and later tested for validity and reliability.Net worth and Age of the owner found to be most impacting factors loan officers are considering while granting credit to SMEs in Mumbai. Study also found that age of the owner is very important determinant along with net worth and financial feasibility. Odds ratio for age of the owner (0.70) of respondents indicate that whose loans are approved belongs to lower age groups than the respondents whose loans are disapproved. Odds ratio for Net worth (1.36) of respondents indicate that one-unit change in the Net worth is going to increase the loan acceptance by 1.36 times. Managerial implications of this study would be Banks can focus on more startup loans and can tap young entrepreneurs who have creative and prospective ideas on business. SME owners should focus more on innovation, clarity of thought expressed in project proposal and approach for loan sanctions at young age to improve the credit flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent financial crisis has generated interests in how business cycle affect bank lending to SMEs. However, the effect of the business cycle on lending to SMEs in South Africa after the global financial crisis of 2008 has not been extensively explored. We examine this relationship and its effect in South Africa using Vector Autoregressive modeling. This paper employs monthly data from South Africa Reserve Bank (SARB) for the period 2008 to 2014. We adopt the regulatorydriven capital crunch hypothesis employing monthly data from South African Reserve Bank (SARB). Most of the variables display a very sensitive reaction to the coincident index and capital adequacy shock. The results show strong evidence of procyclicality in SME lending in South Africa. The result shows that business cycle has a positive and significant long-run impact on SME. However, the adjustment coefficient of the business cycle is also positive and significant in the short run. Any case of asset price misalignment or excessive growth boom may ultimately amplify the business cycle. The impulse response test shows the response of bank lending to SMEs to one standard deviation shock of the business cycle is negative and persistent for over 15 quarters before steadying. This result vividly indicates some strong evidence of credit procyclicality between the business cycle and SME in South Africa. Our results have interesting implications for credit availability to SMEs. Our results have several implications. Firstly, these may lead to many banks decreasing lending in bad times when they encounter loan losses and their capitalization drops. This may affect the real economy, as SMEs, which need to finance their small enterprises, may be cut off from credit. There is also a need to promote diversification of financing options for small firms and SMEs by providing various credit supporting policies in South Africa. There is, therefore, an urgent need to boost support to SMEs credit, especially during recessionary periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does the presence or absence of small business loans affect the emergence and development of rural businesses in traditionally underserved areas? Further, how has capital-intensive oil and gas development contributed to these lending patterns? In our ongoing work, we have established that locally oriented businesses such as small manufacturing establishments and retail outlets are associated with many beneficial local outcomes and promote nonmetropolitan community resilience. Using a longitudinal dataset based on annual public disclosures, we employ data on lending in more than 3,000 United States counties to build analytical visualizations. We provide relevant documentation through spatial statistics for future research on small business lending in underserved nonmetropolitan communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Coping with asymmetric information plays a major role in successful small business lending. Our purpose is to determine if small business applicants report their income information correctly when requesting a loan. We use a randomised controlled trial bogus pipeline experiment, established during a typical cash‐flow analysis of a bank for small businesses in the Philippines. The bogus pipeline approach is commonly applied in social science and aims to increase the rate of truth telling by informing participants that answers will be verified by a lie detector. The experimental data, which include 243 observations of credit clients that are mainly from the agricultural and food value chain, served to identify asymmetric information. Additionally, debtors’ repayment behaviour for approved loans was observed by the bank. Our results indicate that loan applicants of the treatment group report lower incomes, an effect which is most pronounced in lower income quantile. Our analyses also reveal higher loan delinquencies in the control group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Utilizing the Community Capitals framework we examine the impact of Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) reported small business lending on the economic wellbeing of Texas counties in 1999-2000. We combine data from multiple data sources, including the County Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) annual county Aggregate and Disclosure data--collected under directive of the 1977 Community Reinvestment Act--and use GeoDa to model the impact of small business lending in each Texas county from 1996-1999 on the 1999 county poverty rate, median family income, Gini income inequality coefficient, 2000 per capita income and 2000 nonfarm earnings per worker. Controlling for other dimensions of the Community Capitals Framework, the results show positive effects of small business lending on two income measures--per worker nonfarm earnings, and per capita income. Furthermore, we find the small business lending from 1996-1999 reduced poverty and income inequality in the most rural Texas counties. Implications for theory, policy, and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 1977 Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) established a bold agenda requiring financial institutions in the USA to serve the credit needs of low- and moderate-income areas, including traditionally excluded minority residential areas. Initially opposed by both bankers and the federal regulatory authorities responsible for enforcement, the CRA has been contentious for decades. This study explores CRA impacts by investigating whether small businesses located in minority neighbourhoods have the same degree of bank-loan access as equally creditworthy firms located in other environs. We analysed both the unmet credit needs of small firms and the outcomes of their loan applications. We found that equality in loan access has been attained in some respects, indicating the CRA has had positive effects on loan availability. Inequality nonetheless persists. Regarding unmet credit needs, firms are penalised if their owners are African American, Latino or Asian American. Since roughly half of owners in minority communities are minorities, our challenge was to disentangle the effects on loan access of small-business geographic location versus owner race. Causal factors underlying our findings were investigated. Did bank regulators take the initiative in lessening traditional discriminatory lending practices? Alternatively, were activist community groups responsible? While the agenda advocated by activist groups coincides closely with actual gains, the overlapping but differing stated objectives of regulators did not. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper analyzes the need and possibility of obtaining bank loans by small and medium-sized businesses. Requirements of a credit institution to be met in order to obtain a loan are defined. The necessity to improve the legal regulation of the bank lending to promote development of small and medium-sized businesses is justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LUGPA News Washington Roundup R. Jonathan Henderson, MD President, LUGPA; Regional Urology, LLC, Shreveport, LA [Rev Urol. 2020;22(4):168-169] © 2021 MedReviews®, LLC M ost urologists see the title "Washington Roundup" and flip to the next page. Price Transparency Dr. Richard Harris, LUGPA's immediate past president, recently wrote a wonderful opinion in Morning Consult entitled "Now Is Price Transparency's Moment." This is a win for LUGPA as LUGPA has been pushing for quite some time now to reform the 340B drug discount program so that it benefits uninsured and indigent patients, not mega-hospital systems. [Extracted from the article]