Big banks took ‘free money’ in 2008. They’re turning their backs now on small businesses, SBA official says.

“What they are saying is, ‘I don’t give … a hoot about the small businesses,’”one SBA district director said in a candid call with business owners.

Big banks that received taxpayer bailouts during the global financial crisis a decade ago are now too slow in helping small businesses seeking assistance through a $349 billion emergency lending program, a high-level Small Business Administration official said in a recorded teleconference obtained by The Washington Post.

Some banks “that had no problem taking billions of dollars of free money as bailout in 2008 are now the biggest banks that are resistant to helping small businesses,” SBA Nevada district director Joseph Amato said in the Monday teleconference about the Paycheck Protection Program.

Amato’s comments offer a rare candid glimpse at the frustrations of federal officials working with thousands of banks to ramp up one of the most ambitious economic stimulus programs in U.S. history. Continue reading.