Did you happen to see the story on SmallBizTrends.com entitled: Small Business Story of the Year: The Rise of Alternative Lending?

It was an excellent post about how bank lending declined in 2011, but alternative financing lenders such as Credit Unions, Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), Micro Lenders and Accounts Receivable Factoring Firms increased their lending capabilities for small business owners.

Specifically, the article stated that large banks rejected small business loan applications 90 percent of the time in 2011, whereas smaller financing institutions and alternative lenders approved nearly half of all the funding applications. Moreover, in November alone, alternative lenders approved 62 percent of small business funding requests.