Banks are offering small businesses loans promised by the Barack Obama administration, but the response is not as expected. Although small businesses loans of USD 30 billion have been set aside by Barack Obama in September 2010 on signing the Small Business Jobs Act only small businesses loans amounting to USD 11.6 billion are being requested by participating banks. This is because of two reasons:
1. Targeted smaller community banks are showing lesser interest in the program, because several of them are already well capitalized.
2. The program requires repayment of the loan to be made at varying rates of interests, making the proposal less palatable to banks.
Addressing the House Small Business Committee, last week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said that the slow pace of provide the capital to those needing financial assistance was due to built-in safeguards requiring each small businesses loans application to come under review of the bank's primary supervisor and the Treasury Department.

A group of Colorado business leaders told White House officials that the government needs to do more to help entrepreneurs by easing the application process for research grants, eliminating taxes on sweat equity, and putting more Small Business Administration (SBA) loans in the hands of business startup investors. The delegation from Boulder, Colorado were participants in a roundtable meeting hosted by President Barack Obama's Startup America initiative. The program is designed to "accelerate high-growth entrepreneurs."

To maintain a healthy economy and a competitive presence in the global market, US high-growth entrepreneurial firms must not have their growth hampered by excessive regulation. Officials hope to gain some "action-oriented" ideas from people who are confronting the challenges of entrepreneurship on a daily basis. The results from the Startup America panel discussions will be provided in a report to President Obama and other federal agencies.

The online microlender Kiva has said that it's microloans to poor entrepreneurs around the world have surpassed $200 million for the first time, which represents a doubling of its loan volume in just 12 months. Kiva was founded in 2005, and makes microloans on behalf of donors who make small loans through the Kiva.org website.

Kiva has introduced a program over the past year that allows donors to make microloans to American entrepreneurs as well as to those in the developing world. In addition, it has added a new program to make student loans to people in the developing world. Kiva has taken on a number of ambitious corporate partnerships over the past year, including one with Dermalogica called joinFITE, which funds women-owned businesses and one with Visa to expand opportunities for American small business. Over 570,000 people worldwide have made a loan through Kiva since its inception, supporting almost 531,000 entrepreneurs and students in 59 countries.