60 Minutes: You're Stupid and You're Fat!

President Obama told 60 Minutes last night that it was "fat cat bankers" that caused the US financial systems to almost completely fail.


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No blame for Congressional members who were taking campaign contributions from the financial services industry and then failed to adequately supervise the likes of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bear Stearns.

No blame for borrowers who gorged on cheap money when the cash flow of their businesses couldn't demonstrate an ability to pay back those business loans.

Nope. Just the stupid bankers.

Now I'm not defending the fat cat bankers. Just trying to add some perspective that there's a lot of parties that should share in the blame of this financial fiasco.

However, that sound bite won't play as well on 60 Minutes. Or maybe something got left on the editing room floor.

I'm sure the President's meeting today with the banking community will go well when he tells them to lend more money while his regulators tell them don't be "stupid".

Need help finding the right lender or telling your story the right way for your California business? Read "Matchmaking for Business Loans" and give me a call!

Tags : fat cat bankers , stupid bankers , 60 Minutes , President Obama

Business Lending Down Six Percent

Business loans in the third quarter of 2009 were down almost six percent according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

No doubt this decline will pit those in Congress who claim that TARP funds should lead to increased lending against bankers who claim regulators are demanding that lenders take less risk in these troubled times. With a fear of a second round of troubled loans primarily in commercial real estate, banks are as risk averse as ever.

The FDIC's troubled bank list now totals 552 problem banks - approximately seven percent of all banks. Fifty banks failed in the third quarter - the most bank failures in a single quarter since the fourth quarter of 1992. "Failure Friday" took a holiday break over Thanksgiving weekend. Look for bank failures to re-commence sooner than later.

If your business loan request is already in process, you still have a chance of obtaining funding in 2009 if you are working with the right lenders. Otherwise, a 2010 funding is the more likely scenario.

Need help finding the right lender or telling your story the right way for your California business? Read "Matchmaking for Business Loans" and give me a call!

Related Tags: factoring, accounts receivable, p.o. financing, purchase order financing, bank loans, equipment leasing, working capital, cash flow

Walmart Shifts to Supply Chain Finance

Wal-mart recently announced a new supply chain finance program according to this weekend's Wall Street Journal (subscription required). I first wrote about supply chain finance in April 2007.

This supply chain finance program will provide Wal-mart's suppliers with accounts receivable financing - a market which has experienced significant turmoil given the bankruptcy filing of CIT and the credit crunch, in general.

Wal-mart's partner banks, including Wells Fargo and Citigroup, will be providing factoring to Wal-mart's suppliers. It is unclear whether these rates will be any cheaper than those offered by other factors and accounts receivable financiers.

The article mentioned that other retailers, including Kohl's, are also experimenting with supply chain finance programs.

If you're having difficulty with your accounts receivable funding in light of the CIT situation or general market conditions, give me a call!

Tags : Walmart , CIT , supply chain finance , accounts receivable , factoring

CIT, Commercial Real Estate and Workouts

Lots of issues to think about these days with respect to loan workouts, CIT's bankruptcy and commercial real estate.

• Last week, I attended the Risk Management Association's panel discussion on loan workouts and restructurings. Panelists included three bankers from the loan workout departments and an attorney who crafts loan workout agreements. The panel's consensus was expect another year of increasing loan defaults in the world of commercial real estate and business loans. Until this workout activity starts to decline, new loan origination activity is not likely to pick up.
• I still cannot figure out the real impact of the CIT bankruptcy. Many borrowers won't be able to find new lenders because CIT's advance rates against inventory was too high and their interest rates were too low relative to current rates. Some borrowers won't find new homes because they won't find another lender with the back-office capabilities of CIT that has traditionally provided.
• The FDIC issued new guidance to commercial banks allowing them to keep commercial real estate loans on their books as "performing" even when the underlying property value has declined. I suppose this is similar to guidance issued for modification of residential real estate loans with the intent to avoid more losses for banks at a time when their balance sheets cannot afford the earning hit.

Need help finding the right lender or telling your story the right way for your California business? Read "Matchmaking for Business Loans" and give me a call!

Tags : CIT Group , CIT , bankruptcy , factoring , accounts receivable loans , commercial real estate , FDIC

$5 Million SBA Loans if Your Name is Joe or Doug

Is the SBA considering increasing its guarantees for the SBA 7a loans program for loan amounts as high as $5 million?

Yes. But I think only if your name is Joe or Doug.

Here's a portion of what President Obama had to say about his thoughts on changes for the SBA ...

"The first thing we need to do is increase the maximum size of various SBA loans. So I am calling on Congress to increase the cap on what's called 7(a) loans to $5 million. These are the loans most frequently handed out by the Small Business Administration to help folks open their doors and buy machinery, equipment, land and buildings. These larger loans will help more small business owners and franchisees grow. We also need to increase the maximum size of what's called 504 loans to $5 million. These are the type of loans that Joe and Doug used to expand this business and create new jobs. And we should also increase the maximum size of microloans that go to start-ups and other smaller businesses."

By the way, the expectation remains that the current SBA loan stimulus money will be exhausted by the end of 2009. Don't wait if you want to take advantage of the current higher SBA guarantees and waiver of SBA loan guarantee fees.

Need help finding the right SBA lender or telling your story the right way for your California business? Read "Matchmaking for Business Loans" and give me a call!

Tags : SBA loans , 7a loan , SBA lender , business loans , equipment loans , credit crunch

Commercial Real Estate - More Pain Ahead

Commercial real estate losses could reach 45 percent next year according to an internal presentation at The Federal Reserve Bank.

As reported in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), while not the central bank's formal opinion, the presentation by Atlanta Fed real estate expert, K.C. Conway, paints a bleak picture of sliding real estate values, increasing commercial real estate loan defaults and enormous amount of debt that will need to be re-financed in the next few years.

Banks have been slow to take losses on their commercial real estate loan portfolios because their balance sheets still have not recovered from their housing loan related losses. "Extend and pretend" has been the philosophy of some banks whose primary focus is capital preservation and avoiding enforcement actions by regulators.

I have personally seen three bank commercial real estate loans in recent weeks where the banks are in trouble on construction loans and first trust deeds gone sour. I'm working on sale leaseback solutions on two of the three that will necessitate the banks taking a significant discount on the loans. On the third, the value of the property is so low relative to the loan balance, it's not clear where the solution lies.

Need help finding the right lender or telling your story the right way for your California business? Read "Matchmaking for Business Loans" and give me a call!

Tags : commercial real estate loans , commercial real estate , bank failures , real estate bridge loans , private money loans

Do You Really Want to be Banker of the Year?

Less than a year ago, then Chairman and CEO of Bank of America, Ken Lewis, was named Banker of the Year for the second time by American Banker.

Today, The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) announced that Mr. Lewis will retire from Bank of America by year end. This announcement comes just months after Mr. Lewis losing his chairman title over the Merrill Lynch debacle.

Mr. Lewis now joins Kerry Killinger (ousted CEO of Washington Mutual), Ken Thompson (ousted CEO of Wachovia) and Angelo Mozilo (ousted CEO of Countrywide) on the list of former Banker of the Year honorees who thereafter lost their jobs!

Sounds a bit like the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. Do you think any banker in their right mind wants to win next year's award?

Need help finding the right lender or telling your story the right way for your California business? Read "Matchmaking for Business Loans" and give me a call!

Tags : Banker of the Year , American Banker , Ken Lewis , Bank of America