"an sba lender will be able to make the loan with a guarantee that sba will be able to provide. we probably will about 225 sba loans this year. at any point in time, we have about 1500 loans in san francisco that are sba loans. a lot of them are restaurants because that is one of the areas that is very typical because it is a riskier business. but a lot of people in san francisco see that as an opportunity for them as well. we also partner with the golden gate restaurant association to help people understand how to do financing for restaurants. a lot of what we do is helping small businesses get access to credit. the sba loan program covers a range of small loans down to $25,000 and large loans up to $5 million, so it is a very wide range. can be used for a variety of uses -- debt refinancing, building acquisition, working capital, so it can be used for a wide range of things from a small business point of view. as you heard, we do guarantees for about 90 or 100 banks in the country -- or in the bay area. about 3000 nationwide. there is a lot of lenders that do some sba lending.

what impact will be cuts in the sba budget have on the sba program? it seems the small business committee is try to make drastic cuts. from our perspective, the new majority leadership is looking to make drastic cuts, many of the program will hold near and dear to our hearts. the question the leader is continually asking is, show me the jobs. she wants to see house bills come to the floor that create economic opportunity for middle- class -- all of americans. if the small business committee is looking to cut funds from the sba, we see that as a detriment. we do not believe in cutting to create more jobs. we agree with the idea of the recovery act, putting more money out there to get people employed. >> on congressional action, that is not my role. in san francisco, we have been the beneficiary. all small businesses should be aware that we have been the beneficiary of a lot of good resources for small businesses. we have more nonprofits that are funded through micro lending here in the city from sba programs. some are expected to be looked at for budge

>> i already have an sba loan. i went to wells fargo for a line of credit and they would not give me one. >> i can speak to you about it. when we look at funds that are needed, the biggest thing we look at our cash flow. i can address that with you. unless there is an issue, at that point -- [inaudible] >> let's talk, ok. >> i have a couple of more questions. i know that the panelists have agreed to stay after for those who have specific questions. i do have one question for wells fargo. what are the typical rules for applying for sba loan of less than $50,000? how much money do we need to have in your bank to apply for a loan? >> i am on the smaller side of the bank. i am a transaction guy. i do not technically require one to have an account to do a loan with. what i look for, i generally start at 100,000 and up. when it is a requirement of 50,000 or less, i tend to call of the micro guys to help me out. that is right in their box. for us, the capacity for us to do the smaller side is not there as much as it is fo

we invited the sba team to local there as well.y thursday, the business recovery center was in full operation. we understand the sba, business recovery team, does not often colocate with chambers or with sbpbcs. it has worked very well for us and for our businesses in an approach that we would highly recommend. we were also contacted immediately by fema's private sector support group. we understand that this is a relatively new approach. since it does not have direct funding for businesses, fema instead has partnerships with regional and national officials that can provide resources. through one of those connections we are receiving laptops for small businesses and for the school's technology program which provides training for students and company employees. as their time permitted, members of both the sba and the fema private sector teams is going to our staff members and going into the devastated areas to meet with businesses onsite. they have also been present at a number of chamber events to reach out to companies. our ability

they narrow the big sea sba a line of your sweat and then they take away your last word and then they take away another. now you put the keys back in your pocket and now you push on the door until it is in flame, until it is in flame. next reader is jane herschfield. . >> one sand grain among the others in winter wind. i wake with my hand held over the place of grief in my body. depend on nothing, the voice advices, but even that is useless. my ears are useless, my familiar and intimate tongue, my protecting hand is useless that wants to hold the single leaf to the tree and say, not this one. this one will be saved. a poem written on september 15th, 2001, against the knowledge that exactly what would happen was probably going to happen. the dead do not want us dead. the dead do not want us dead. such petty errors are left for the living. nor do they want our mourning. no gift to them. not rage, not weeping. return one of them, any one of them, to the earth and look. such foolish skipping, such telling of bad jokes, such feasting. even a cucumber, even a single anise seed, feasting. an

we invited the sba team to locate there as well. by thursday, the business recovery center was in full operation. we'll understand the sba business recovery team does not often locate with chambers or is dpc. it's worked well for us and our businesses and an approach we would highly recommend. we were also contacted by the private sector >> he wouldn't cover to rebuild basically? a.m., is there a mechanism for checking whether they get government assistance from another plan like a view of god flooding and you have agricultural systems versus fema? >> what we do as we aggregate the information that comes into our national processing center and we go back and look at rings that they have to see what else they may qualify for if they don't have that, they don't qualify for any theme alone and make sure they're not getting double dipping if you will but also to make sure there are other things that may be available. >> the gao reported in 2006 there was a billion dollars worth of improper payments. has that been addressed? who were tho

that's just looking at sba's top 100 lenders and be only at their sba-backed loans. is cfpb considering how actions against larger institutions will impact small business lending? >> so the letter you're referring to to the ceos, mr. chairman, was sort of introducing our program of supervision. that's a program that is by statute focused on the depository side. it is focused on depositories with $10 billion in assets or larger and their affiliates, just to put that into full context. um, and that process of supervision which is, essentially, working with the institutions by sending examiners to them and understanding how, how they operate and understanding their businesses and understanding where, um, there may be questions about, um, about their compliance with applicable federal laws. that process is focused on the consumer protections, and as i said, our jurisdiction over business credit is quite limited. where -- the main exception, the main exception is in the area of implementation of the equal credit opportunity act. and in that area as required that will be a

that's just looking at sbas top 100 lenders. and only at their sba-backed loans. if cfpb b -- is cfpb considering how actions against larger institutions will impact small business lending? >> so the letter that you are referring to to this ceos, mr. chairman, was sort of introducing our program of supervision. that's a program that is by statute focused on the depository side. it is focused on the depositories with $10 billion in assets or larger. and their affiliates. just to put that into full context. and those -- that process is supervision which is essentially working with the institutions by sending examiners to them and understanding how they operate and understanding their businesses and understanding where there maybe questions about their -- about their compliance with applicable federal law. that's focused on the consumers protections. as i said, our jurisdiction over business credit is quite limited. where it's -- the main exception, the main exception is in the area of implementation of the equal opportunity credit act. and in that area as we are req

sba does a good job, and our system works well for individual and public assistance. the one area we need to think about ways, no not in essentialy new money, but existing structure, particularly with our small business disaster, those are good but what we're doing is we're putting an emphasis and advocating for certain programs over another. depending on what the situation is or disaster is. what dna is advocating are trying to give attention to additional public awareness is how do we take something like the louisiana business and emergency operation center and expand in a way that fema could use that same type of structure or information to coordinate and integrate with small business administration when a disaster happens in the dr a region, can say we know you have 45 local development districts or cocks at whatever they may be called that has the ability to touch 3000 elected officials. with a delivery system that has been proven. to make sure we're utilizing all the local and state and federal resources and coordinate fashions as it relates to supporting rebuil

and i needed help, so i reached out to our local chamber, to the sba, to the small business development sectors and was fortunate to come across the 10,000 small businesses initiatives, which was under the directions of goldman sachs. we work with one of the local community colleges and provided with business council services, business support services, and networking opportunities with other small-business owners. it also showed his alternative routes to financing and help us to stabilize our operations until it could reach the point where we are now. we've seen mediocre -- meteoric increase since joining the initiative. we've been able to put that back into play in our business. >> carol, we talked about the issues and we're different things right. -- where different things r ank. i think that small businesses, the debate in washington over the debt and deficit and where we go in the country has really extremely move that issue up with regard to however one that is to small businesses who are going to spend their time saying, where do i go to get customers? how do i increase my revenu