"During the credit crunch, small business owners rejected by traditional lenders found growth funding through domestic microfinance organizations geared to helping the poor and disenfranchised. Loan applications have increased in the past two years at 66 percent of microfinance groups surveyed by the Aspen Institute, a policy and research organization.

While only a few microlenders were able to accommodate a majority of new applicants, those more likely to get funding were "people who were very strong small business owners who in the past would have received financing, but because the banks pretty much shut down, they did not," says Elaine Edgcomb, the director of Aspen's microenterprise FIELD project, which tracks domestic microfinance and conducted the survey..."

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