Lending

Keeping pace with a national trend, banks in Wisconsin experienced a 15% decrease in business lending in 2009 while the state's credit unions marked a 13% jump last year.

While some credit unions have experienced losses, it's still may be worth it for them to take a chance on what would happen if the 12.25% of assets member business lending cap was lifted.

Financial regulators, including the NCUA, say while they understand that the downturn has led lenders to significantly scale back their business lending activity,

Loan delinquencies declined in eight of the 11 loan categories tracked by the American Bankers Association in the last quarter of 2009, the second consecutive overall quarterly improvement, the association announced today.

The $1.3 billion Truliant Federal Credit Union saw a 16% increase in the mortgage loans it closed in March 2010 over March 2009.

The SBA's two largest loan programs recently received another extension that is estimated to support nearly $1.4 billion in small business lending under legislation signed by President Obama March 26.