first of all, don graves, deputy assistance of the department of treasury.ng on the other side of the wall. there's going to be eight of them. so we got to get chairs for everybody. if i could sing and dance, you would be doing that at the moment. all right. everybody is coming out. don graves, deputy secretary of the treasury, steven smits, associate director of the small business association, rebecca rainey chairman and ceo of central bank, kathleen sowa from bank of america, jorge corralejo, from the business of chamber of commerce, and denny dennis from the international business association. welcome to our new panel. let me start out to get everybody's brief take on the central conundrum that was addressed by the previous panel. that was the seeming contradiction with the fact that banks say they are ready to lend, but small businesses say they can't get loans. is it a regulatory problem, is it some other problem in the economy? don? >> i think there are a number of issues at play here. i think we are obviously coming out of the worst economic condition

don graves, deputy assistant secretary of the treasury. steven submits, associate administrator with the small business administration. rebecca rainy, chairman and ceo of the central bank of to do, anthony lowe from the federal deposit insurance corporation, john harrison, superintendent of the alabama state banking department. kathleen soa from bank of america. jorge from the chairman of the latin business chamber of commerce in los angeles, and denny dennis from the national the ted ration of independent business -- federation of independent business. welcome our new panel. [applause] now, let me start out with to get everybody's brief take on the central conundrum that was addressed by the previous panel, and that was the seeming contradiction with the fact that banks say they're ready to lend, but small businesses say they can't get loans. is it a regulatory problem? is it some other problem in the economy? don? >> i think there are a number of issues at play here. i think we're, obviously, coming out of the worst economic conditions t

don graves, steven smits, associated director of the small business administration, rebecca rainey, anthony lowe from the fdic, john harrison, superintendent of the alabama state banking department, kathleen sowa, jorge corralejo, and denny. let me get everybody's take on the conundrum. banks say they are ready to lend, small businesses say they can't get loans. regulatory problem? some other problem in the economy? don? >> i think there are a number of issues at play here. we are coming out of the worst economic conditions that any of us have faced in their lifetime. because of that, you've seen some tightening of regulatory requirements on a lot of the banks. >> appropriate tightening? >> absolutely. i think you've seen some changes to borrowers credit, and that's had an impact on their ability to access credit because they've had some dings. and i think you have some banks that are a little bit scared because of what they've seen over time. having gone through that period, i think we are now at the point where we are going to see a lot more lending going forward. we've taken a number of