Obama Leans on Bankers to Ease Credit Crunch President Obama tried jawboning to increase bank lending to small businesses. After a Dec. 14 White House meeting with CEOs of 12 of the largest financial institutions, the president said, “America’s banks received extraordinary assistance from American taxpayers to rebuild their industry—and now that they’re back on their feet, we expect an extraordinary commitment from them to help rebuild our economy. “That starts with finding ways to help creditworthy small and medium-size businesses get the loans that they need to open their doors, grow their operations, and create new jobs.” Bank lending has declined for the past five consecutive quarters, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Banking executives told the president they are taking steps to increase the flow of credit. “Every bank in that room talked about adding many, many small-business originators and setting very aggressive goals for small-business lending next year,” said Richard Davis, CEO of US Bancorp. Brushing aside the promises, Obama said he wants “some results, because I’m getting too many letters from small businesses who explain that they are creditworthy and banks that they’ve had a long-term relationship with are still having problems giving them loans. We think that’s something that we can—that can be fixed.  And so I urged these institutions here today to go back and take a third and fourth look about how they are operating when it comes to small business and medium-sized business lending.” In a “60 Minutes” interview the night before the meeting, President Obama had made clear his displeasure with what he called “fat-cat bankers.” But his leverage is limited and growing weaker. All nine big banks that received federal bailout funds last year have either repaid the money to the U.S. Treasury or set a plan to do so. Repayment frees the banks from federal intervention in their policies and compensation plans. Bankers are also fighting the Obama administration’s proposed overhaul of financial regulation. The president complained that “the industry has lobbied vigorously” against some provisions of the legislation. Three leading bankers participated in the White House meeting by teleconference. The heads of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley said they couldn’t fly to Washington because of fog.