Too Small to Prevail

The diminutive banks in the land  
May be showing less profit than planned,  
If for growth they're depending  
On small-business lending,  
For which there is flagging demand.    


Kelly Evans writes in the Journal's Ahead of the Tape that smaller banks do not appear set to report the earnings improvements that the largest banks generally have of late.  The chief reason for this disparity is the smaller banks' greater dependence on lending, which has been slow to recover from the financial crisis.