Major banks making more loans to small businesses.

Houston's largest banks seem to be playing an increasing role in making loans backed by the Small Business Administration.

In the past few weeks, First Interstate Bank of Texas, NationsBank and Bank One-Texas all gained approval from the SBA to become preferred lenders in Houston. Then Bank of America earned its preferred lending status, boosting the local total to 14.

What all of this means to the mega-banks and their prospective small business clientele is that the select financial institutions now will have authority to approve SBA-backed loans without running the paperwork past SBA Houston District Director Milton Wilson and other staffers in his office. That …