Chase to increase small-business lending next year

New York-based JPMorgan Chase announced plans today to expand lending to small businesses by up to $4 billion in 2010.

According to American City Business Journals, the bank will hire more bankers to handle the extra work.

That will bring the bank's total small-business lending up to $10 billion. According to a statement from Chase, most new lending activity will occur with business that make $10 million or less in annual sales.

“We will provide more credit – and more one-on-one advice – to small businesses at this crucial time because they are so important to the U.S. economy,” said Charlie Scharf, head of retail financial services, in a news release.

And that's just a start. Chase also plans to introduce a new line of credit cards geared toward businesses, and host online training and town halls on credit issues for small business.

This comes at a time when banks are facing criticism for how they've used federal bailout money. Read more about that here.

Chase bought Seattle-based Washington Mutual from the FDIC in September of last year.