small business lending up some

Evidence that small business lending has improved is piling up. Banks had $287.64 billion in outstanding loans to small businesses as of Dec. 31, up 1.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. In January, the dollars loaned to small businesses by banks, independent commercial finance companies and corporations, increased 4 percent from last year, according to Thomson Reuters and PayNet. And a February survey by Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management found that 39 percent of small business owners who applied for bank loans in the previous three months were successful, up from 34 percent in a survey taken in October and November.