The federal government has secured commitments from 13 banks to increase their lending to small businesses by $20 billion over the next three years.

Joe Biden

The banks include Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Citizens Financial Group, Huntington Bancshares, JP Morgan Chase, Key Corp, M&T Bank, PNC Bank, Regions Financial, Sun Trust, TD Bank, US Bank and Wells Fargo. The new commitments represent an increase of 10 percent or more beyond the current levels of small business lending at many of the banks.

Vice President Joe Biden and Small Business Administration administrator Karen Mills announced the agreement Tuesday at a small business in Solon, Ohio, known as Wrap Tite Inc., a manufacturer and distributer of stretch wrap and other packing and shipping products. Wrap Tite recently received a $1.5 million SBA-supported loan intended to purchase and renovate a new facility in Solon and hire five new workers. Biden and Mills used the occasion to advocate passage of the American Jobs Act, which President Barack Obama introduced last week.

“Small businesses like Wrap Tite are the real engines of our economy, which is why Congress should cut their taxes and put money back in the pockets of their customers by passing the American Jobs Act right away,” said Biden. “The only way we’re going to turn the vicious economic cycle we’ve been in into a virtuous one is by cutting taxes on our small businesses and making sure they can get the loans they need to grow and hire more workers.”