WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama wants smaller community banks to help small businesses that are still suffering from a prolonged credit crunch. To that end, he wants the banks to have greater access to the government's $700 billion financial rescue fund.
Officials say Obama plans to announce tomorrow a package of initiatives designed to increase lending.
The new effort comes as the administration is under pressure from liberals to shift the massive bailout fund's focus away from helping big financial institutions and toward homeowners and small businesses. But it also comes as Republicans press Obama to end the rescue program and use bank repayments to reduce the national debt.
The rescue fund, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, has about $320 billion still available to spend. The TARP is set to expire at the end of December, but the administration could extend it until October 2010.
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
