Small Firms Find Credit Is Tightening

小型企业亦受信贷紧缩困扰

Lenders’ credit woes are starting to take a toll on small businesses.

纽约时报----由于贷款商的信贷疾苦，其正开始对小型企业收取费用。

Though it may be too early to determine how hard small businesses will be hit, some national surveys show that the businesses are encountering more restrictions at lending institutions, making it harder to get the credit necessary to expand or, in some cases, stay afloat.

一些国家调查表明，企业正在遭受贷款机构带来的更多贷款限制，使得企业为扩建或其他用途，取得贷款的难度增大，在某些情况下开始蔓延，虽然现在确定小型企业将要受到冲击的严重程度还为之过早。

Last month, a Federal Reserve report found that a third of banks in the United States had tightened their lending standards for small-business loans.

上个月，一份美联储报告显示，英国1/3的银行收紧了他们对小型企业的贷款标准。

Soundings of business owners themselves are mixed because credit availability is not uniform across the country. More than half of those responding to the National Small Business Association’s online poll two weeks ago replied “yes” when asked whether their business had “been impacted by the credit crunch in recent months.” But another group, the National Federation of Independent Business, said that more than a third of the members responding to its February survey said they were borrowing normally, and only 4 percent said there was a problem getting a loan.

对企业主本身的调查结果是喜忧参半的，因为全国的信贷供应并不统一。对于二周前全国小型企业协会（National Small Business Association）的在线民意调查，被问及他们的企业是否“受到了近些月来信贷紧缩的影响。”，半数以上受访者的回答的肯定的。但是其他团体，国家独立企业联合会（National Federation of Independent Business）表示，超过1/3的成员对其2月份调查的回答表示，他们的借贷情况正常，只有4%的成员表示取得贷款存在问题。

The Small Business Administration has not said publicly that it is worried about a credit squeeze even though the number of business loans made through its main program, called 7 (a), has declined so far this fiscal year by more than 15 percent compared with the period last year. And the dollar value of the loans declined by more than 7 percent. The agency guaranteed some $20.6 billion in such loans in the last fiscal year.

小企业主利益保护局（Small Business Administration）并没有公开表示，他们正担忧信贷紧缩问题，即使一些通过其主程序获得的商业贷款，被称为7（a），本财政年度比去年同期快速下降超过15%。美元贷款价值降幅超过7%。该机构为上一财政年度提供了约206亿美元的贷款保证。

This month, Steven C. Preston, the agency’s administrator, held a closed meeting with major bank executives at the White House to talk about small-business credit. The list of those attending was not made public, but Mr. Preston said afterward, “We know affordable credit is the lifeline of any business, and we also know banks have been tightening their credit standards.”

本月，该机构的行政人员Steven C. Preston举办了一次非公开会议，在白宫与各大银行管理者商讨小型企业的信贷问题。参会者的名单是不公开的，但是随后Preston先生表示，“我们知道长期持续的贷款是任何企业的命脉，我们也知道银行已经收紧了信贷标准。”

Mr. Preston has been meeting with banks around the country to remind them of federally guaranteed loan offerings, an agency spokeswoman, Christine Mangi, said.

一位机构女发言人Christine Mangi表示，Preston先生已经与全国各地的银行接洽，提醒他们提供联盟担保贷款。

But Congressional Democrats have argued that this is far from enough to help small businesses ride out a tumultuous economy.

但是国会民主党人都认为，这远不足以帮助小型企业安全渡过经济衰退期。

“The S.B.A. should be a major instrument to help small business,” Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said in an interview. Instead, he said, the agency has raised fees on loans and cut back on debt counseling for small businesses in economic trouble.

马萨诸塞州的民主党人士，小型企业和企业家委员会（Small Business and Entrepreneurship）主席，参议员John Kerry在接受采访时表示，“S.B.A.应该是帮助小型企业渡过难关的主要手段。”反之，他表示，该机构已经提高了贷款的费用，同时削减了小型企业在经济衰退时期的债务咨商。

According to S.B.A. data, more than $1 billion in 7 (a) loans — the most basic and most used loan type — were delinquent on Dec. 31, 2007, compared with about $673 million a year earlier.

S.B.S.数据显示，超过10亿美元的7（a）贷款-最基本和最常用的贷款种类-在2007年12月31日被拖欠了，去年同期拖欠了6.73亿美元。

The administration “has been ignoring data on small-business economic conditions since at least October,” Mr. Kerry added.

Kerry先生补充道，政府“忽略了自去年10月份以来的小型企业经济状况数据。”

Advocates for small business argue that it is a mainstay of employment, even in economic downturns.

小型企业的拥护者认为，小型企业是就业市场的中流砥柱，即使在经济不景气的情况下。

“What’s significant here is that microenterprises continued to create new jobs even during the 2001 recession,” said Amy McKenna Luz, president of the Association for Enterprise Opportunity, a national organization for small businesses. When the auto, telecommunications and other major industries were laying off people, she said microenterprises (businesses with five or fewer employees) continued to add jobs — some 4.5 million from 2000 to 2005.

企业机遇协会（Association for Enterprise Opportunity）是为小型企业服务的国家机构，协会主席Amy McKenna Luz表示，“值得关注的是，微型企业在持续创造新的就业机会，即使是在2001年的衰退期。当汽车，电信和其他主要行业裁员时，微型企业（由5名或更少的职员人数构成的企业）继续在增加职位-从2000年到2005年，增加了约450万个职位。

One small-business owner who has been running into problems obtaining new credit is Tate M. Linden, who opened his marketing consulting business three years ago. Last May, he said, he had no trouble obtaining a $35,000 line of credit for Stokefire, his branding consulting business in Alexandria, Va.

一位小企业主Tate M. Linden，在三年前开始从事市场咨询业务。在取得新贷款上遇到了麻烦。去年5月，他表示，取得35,000美元的贷款最高额度对他来说是不成问题的，因为他企业的声誉享誉美国弗吉尼亚州亚历山大市。

But when he went back several weeks ago to the same institution to add another $15,000 to his credit line, the answer was no.

但当他几周前以相同的情况再次申请一笔15,000美元的贷款时，回答的否定的。

“We just thought it would be as simple as making a check mark in the box because we have revenues coming in,” said Mr. Linden,36.

Linden先生表示，“我认为取得贷款会像在盒子上做标记那么简单，因为我们有源源不断的收入。”

When the economy slides, he said, businesses like his do well as companies clamor for expertise to refresh or turn around their image. So he had planned to double his three-employee staff now and then add another four to five people later this year in sales, project management and graphic design. But he halted his hiring plans when he got a formal rejection on grounds he already had “sufficient credit.”

他表示，当经济衰退时，像他这样的企业需要专门的技术来重新树立或扭转企业形象。所以他之前计划现在多聘请三名工作人员，随后在今年的晚些时候再聘请4到5名人员，从事销售，项目管理和平面设计的工作。但当他的贷款申请被以他已经拥有了“足够的贷款”为理由，正式拒绝后，他搁置了他的招聘计划。

Kathy D. Wheeler, chief executive of Community Business Partnership, a nonprofit organization in Springfield, Va., that trains entrepreneurs to start and expand businesses, said Mr. Linden’s tale “shows me there is a lending problem.”

社区企业联盟协会（Community Business Partnership）是美国弗吉尼亚州斯普林菲尔德市（Springfield, Va.）的非赢利性机构，协会指导企业家创办和扩展业务，协会的行政长官Kathy D. Wheeler称Linden先生的故事“告诉我信贷问题的存在。”

Sirena C. Moore of Bristol, Pa., said she also had difficulty when she tried to get a line of credit for her company, Elohim Cleaning Contractors, which, she said, took in nearly $2 million last year from asbestos removal and cleanup of construction sites in the Philadelphia area.

美国宾夕法尼亚州布里斯托尔市的小企业主Sirena C. Moore称，当她试图为其公司争取信用贷款的最高额度时，她也遇到了麻烦。清洁用品承包商Elohim表示，去年通过在宾夕法尼亚地区拆除石棉和清理建筑用地，我公司赚到约200万美元。

“The bank said it wanted more credit history,” said Ms. Moore, 26, whose company started with $3,000 in revenue in 2002. “But I’ve never taken out a loan before and I don’t own a house. My car is paid because I bought it used.”

Moore女士，她的公司在2002年以3000美元的收入开始运营。她表示，“银行表示他们希望获得申请公司更多的信用记录，但是我以前从来没有申请过贷款，我也没有房产。购车费用我已经支付了，因为那是我以前买的。”

She applied for a $250,000 credit line, she said, so the “company would have a cushion, and I can actually take a real salary, which I’ve never done because I always have to make sure the crew is paid first.”

她表示，她申请了250,000美元的最高贷款额，因此“公司将会得到周转的空间，我其实可以提取实质薪金，而我从来没有这样做过，因为我始终先要确保全体职员的薪水。”

She added, “The banks are happy to give us a lollipop, but nothing when it comes to credit.”

她补充道，“银行很乐意给我们提供好处，但对信贷则免谈。”

The trade association for lenders has urged Congress to step in, noting that there is more demand for federally guaranteed loans when credit standards tighten.

贷款商行业协会已经要求国会介入帮助，并指出，当信贷标准收紧时，联邦担保贷款的需求量越来越大。

 “Loan volume is declining at an alarming rate,” Anthony R. Wilkinson, president of the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders, told a House of Representatives hearing on lending this month. “With each passing week of this fiscal year, the problem is getting worse.”

政府担保贷款商国家协会（National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders）主席Anthony R. Wilkinson本月在众议院关于贷款的听证会上表示，“贷款量以惊人的速度下降。在本财政年度过去的每个礼拜中，问题变得越来越严重。”

Commercial banks like Bank of America insist there has been no change in their lending programs. Even so, a bank spokeswoman, Tara Burke, said, “Obviously we are being prudent and ensuring that we take the right risks and get paid appropriately for the risks we take.”

商业银行，如美国银行（Bank of America）坚持他们的贷款程序并没有改变。但即便如此，一位银行女发言人Tara Burke表示，“显然我们正越发谨慎，并确保我们采取的风险是正确的，同时我们可以从风险中获得合理的回报。”

Entrepreneurs who are being squeezed are trying to get smaller loans or looking for alternative financing. Ms. Wheeler of the Community Business Partnership says her group is processing more than twice as many weekly requests for microloans for start-ups as it did a year ago.

陷入困境的创业者正在试图取得小量贷款或者寻求替代性融资。社区企业伙伴协会（Community Business Partnership）的Wheeler女士称，她的工作团队正在处理二倍以上每周微型企业启动请求，就像一年以前的情况一样。 

That program has been a target of Bush administration budget-cutting for several years, but Congress has always stepped in to save it.

问题在于布什政府计划削减未来数年的预算，但国会一直在致力于挽救小型企业。

While home equity lines of credit are dicier because of the drop in home valuations, many small-business owners are still using them as well as credit cards, even though they generally have higher interest rates than credit lines or loans.

由于房价下跌，房屋资产信贷最高限额不明朗，许多小型企业主仍然在使用此类贷款，就像使用信用卡一样，即使这类贷款相比信贷限额和贷款，通常都具有较高的利息。

Mr. Linden said he planned to explore a smaller federally guaranteed loan to shore up his credit line.

Linden先生称，他计划去寻求一项更低的联邦担保贷款，来支撑他的信贷额度。

 “There’s a big disconnect between what the big banks are saying on their television and radio ads about meeting small-business needs,” Mr. Linden said. “It really comes down to numbers, not relationships.”

Linden先生表示，“现实和大型银行在电视，广播及广告上就满足小型企业需求的声称大相径庭，关键在于数字，而不是关系。”