To: Road Walker who wrote (106775 ) 1/3/2012 1:06:15 PM From: RetiredNow Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 149317 BTW, are you still convinced we should be bailing out these banksters? They are not really helping our economy at all. It would have been far better to put them through a structured bankruptcy process and put different executives in charge who would be better managers. Unfortunately, we rewarded the idiots like the CEO of BoA. We get what we deserve. -------------Behind B. of A.’s small-business squeezeCommentary: Under pressure, Moynihan turns to bully banking marketwatch.com By MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Getting squeezed, Brian Moynihan is putting the squeeze on. The chief executive of Bank of America Corp. BAC +4.23% is under pressure to meet higher capital requirements and get the bank to profitability goals he set. As a result, the bank that brought “robo-signed” mortgages into the national lexicon is shorting many of its small-business customers. Nationwide, the bank is cutting back credit lines to small business, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. The bank is asking customers to pay off their credit lines or accept new terms with dramatically higher interest rates. Read full story on B of A’s small-business strategy in the Los Angeles Times . Bank of America isn’t alone. Small-business lending still hasn’t recovered after the financial crisis. A Wells Fargo and Gallup poll in October found that 34% of small business found difficulty in securing credit. See WSJ story on small-business lending . Of the small-business loans being made, most are by small or regional banks. For instance, in October, the top 10 lenders in the sector included such names as Live Oak Banking Co. ($261 million), First Financial Bank ($163 million), Ridgestone Bank ($79 million), according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Era of failing banks not over yetNinety-two banks failed in 2011, well below the previous two years' totals but the era of troubled banks is not yet over, Colin Barr reports on Markets Hub. Bank of America ($16 million) ranked below BankAsiana and Borrego Springs Bank. Of the national banks, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. ranked in the top 10. See SBA rankings of small-business lenders in October . This is in stark contrast to last year, when Bank of America pledged $5 billion to small business and actually made the goal halfway through the year, according to SBA. But times and the demand for capital and profits are forcing Moynihan to get tough. Small businesses, like mortgage borrowers, are too small to fight back and thus one place to squeeze.