Bank of America not interested in helping our economy recover

The recession is still bad. Small businesses are the only businesses creating jobs. My partners and I are in the midst of starting two businesses, both of which are having success and creating jobs. One partner has a personal relationship with a banker at Bank of America, so we had the audacity to ask Bank of America for a line of credit. Their full email response is below. A simple f--- you would have been easier. Obviously, Bank of America doesn't care about helping the only companies who will drive our economic recovery, small businesses. If you think the creation of mega financial corporations is good for business, you might want to reconsider. Deregulation of the financial industry has a history of destroying our economy. Every time our economy collapses, we put controls in place and the economy recovers. Then we remove the controls and the system collapses again. Maybe someday we will learn.

Here is the full email:

Hello Steve,

Thank you for your inquiry into small business loan with Bank of America; we do require some additional information to verify that the business meets our minimum requirements when it comes to lending. Please find below a list of guidelines we have for all business loans:

• Borrower must have owned and operated the business for at least 2 years
• Gross Annual Revenue must be over $250,000 for Term Loans, Lines of Credit and Leases
• We require 80% of the ownership of the company to be personal guarantors on the loan
• All guarantors must have a 690 credit score or above
• Our minimum term loan and line of credit is $25,000
• All Loans and Lines of Credit have a 1% origination fee
• Commercial Property purchase require a minimum of 20% down payment

We require signed copies of the following documentation:

• 2011 Profit & Loss Statement (signed)
• 2011 Balance Sheet (signed)
• 2010 Business Tax Returns (if available, send all pages w/page two signed)
• 2010 Personal Tax Returns (if available, send all pages w/page two signed)
• 2009 Business Tax Returns (All pages w/page two signed)
• 2009 Personal Tax Returns (All pages w/page two signed)
• 2008 Business Tax Returns (All pages w/page two signed – disregard if you are sending 2010 Tax Return)
• 2008 Personal Tax Returns (All pages w/page two signed – disregard if you are sending 2010 Tax Return)
• Personal Financial Statement
• Business Debt Schedule

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns over these requirements, or over the loan process in general. If you are interested in moving forward with the application, please contact me to begin the process, or if you do not meet our guidelines for loans or lines of credit, then please contact (800) 481-8277 for a business credit card. Thank you for choosing Bank of America.

Sincerely,