In a follow-up to the post I wrote yesterday, the Nashville Post has a story today that confirms my outlook for bank lending to entrepreneurial ventures in 2009.
From Geert De Lombaerde’s story:
The credit crisis taking its toll on parts of Nashville’s banking sector could be setting the stage for a clear 2009 division of the haves and the have-nots.
A NashvillePost.com analysis of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. third-quarter filings shows that four of the top nine banks based in Middle Tennessee or doing most of their business here trimmed their loan portfolios from July to September.
Such is the case with community banks all across the country, although in some markets small business lending has come to a complete stop.
Geert used my analysis from yesterday as support for his assessment that this “tight lending environment will be with us for a while.”
However, the surveys of business owners are all beginning to tell us the same story — most entrepreneurs are not really looking for new credit right now, anyway.