President Barack Obama presses big banks to step up lending to small businesses

Now he wants those executives to repay the "extraordinary assistance" by not only returning the money, as many are doing, but with "an extraordinary commitment ... to help rebuild our economy." Specifically, Obama wants the nation's largest banks to lend more money to small businesses -- a message he delivered at a White House meeting Monday.

"Now, no one wants banks making the kinds of risky loans that got us into this situation in the first place," Obama said after the sit-down with executives from Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and seven other banks, with three others joining by phone.

"But given the difficulty businesspeople are having as lending has declined, and given the exceptional assistance banks receive to get them through a difficult time, we expect them to explore every responsible way to help get our economy moving again."

Executives said they got the point. Bank of America pledged to make $5 billion more to small- and medium-size businesses next year. JPMorgan Chase reiterated an announcement it made last month to increase lending in 2010 by as much as $4 billion. And other bankers also promised to do more -- within limits.

"Every bank in that room talked about adding many, many small business originators and setting very aggressive goals for small business lending next year," Richard Davis, chief executive of U.S. Bancorp, said after the meeting.

"We have to find a way to qualify more people and not put ourselves at risk three or four years from now because of actions we took at a moment in time," he added.