According to Biz2Credit's (www.Biz2Credit.com) Small Business Lending Index, (a monthly analysis of over 1,000 loan applications), for January 2013, big bank loan approvals for small businesses increased to 15.3%, from 14.9% for the previous month. This is the highest recorded by the organization's Lending Index.  Is this an indication that for large banks, small businesses - the engine of economic growth in America - are less risky than they were thought to be a month or a year ago? Is now the time for your small business to seek a loan from a large bank?

For answers to these and other small business lending questions, listen in on CBS Radio 1580AM at 11:00 am EST this Sunday, and visit www.biztalkwithjosh.com  when Josh Smith interviews Mr. Rohit Aurora, Founder and CEO, Biz2Credit (www.Biz2Credit.com) and Mr. Paul Quintero, CEO / Interim CEO, ACCION New York (http://www.accionnewtork.org).

Joshua I. Smith,  Chairman and Managing Partner of The Coaching Group, LLC, is Host of Biz Talk With Josh. He is a nationally renowned entrepreneur and lecturer; member of the board of directors of Allstate Corporation, FedEx Corporation and Caterpillar, Inc., as well as the SCORE board of directors, and previously served on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Board.  Josh is Vice Chairman of CompCare Corporation, and a presidential appointee under former President George H.W. Bush. He has also served as the only Chairman of the only U.S. Commission on Minority Business Development ever established in the Nation