A local brewery was the venue for a press conference held Wednesday by several San Antonio, Texas-based businesses to build up support for the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act.

Tim Haegelin, president/CEO of the $385 million Generations Federal Credit Union in San Antonio, said 90% of small business owners have said that access to capital is a significant issue for them and the lack of it hinders them from growing their business and hiring new employees.

Along with Generations FCU, representatives from Security Service FCU, Firstmark CU, United SA FCU and Randolph-Brooks FCU were also at the press conference, which took place at Freetail Brewing Co.

Small business owners who also attended said they had approached multiple banks but were unable to obtain necessary funding to grow and expand their businesses, according to Generations FCU. However, all were later able to receive funding from their local credit unions.

Haegelin said the average credit union business loan is a little over $200,000, which are often not large enough for banks to want to put in the time because they do not provide enough of a return on investment.

At the press conference, the credit unions and small business owners called on Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison to support the Small Business Lending Enhancement Act (S. 2231). The bill, which is expected to be voted on within the next two weeks, would raise the member business lending cap from 12.25% to 27.5% of their total assets.

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Lending