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Detroit private equity firm Rockbridge Growth Equity LLC has bought Purchasing Power LLC for an undisclosed amount.

Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending Group LP and Fortress Credit Corp. were lead agents on the $127 million senior secured credit facility provided to Purchasing Power. Boston-based Falcon Investment Advisors partnered with Rockbridge in the acquisition

Atlanta-based Purchasing Power offers a purchase program where employees can pay for typically pricey items such as computers and home appliances through a payroll deduction arrangement. Purchasing Power grew revenue 31 percent from 2009 to 2010 and has generated more than $500 million in revenue since its inception in 2001. It has about 150 employees.

Related to the investment, Purchasing Power President Richard Carrano was named CEO.

And they’re off! The Resort World Casino (Aqueduct Racino) which will be opening its doors to the public for the first time Friday.

(CNN) — Board a bus or a train today and chances are youll see several people with eReaders in hand. While most probably bought their electronic books on a popular website, you may find a few who borrowed the paperless books from the library.

EBooks accounted for 6.4% of all publishing in 2010, according to the American Association of Publishers, and 114 million electronic books were sold last year.

While the majority of eBooks sold today are bought by individual readers, a growing number of the paperless books are winding up in public library catalogs.

Our popular e-content collection at ebooks.nypl.org currently has over 75,000 copies across more than 35,000 titles, said Christopher Platt, director of Collections and Circulation Operations at The New York Public Libraries. He oversees the intake of more than a million new items every year.

While that sounds like a lot of eBooks, its a tiny fraction of the systems overall number of books available for lending. We have over 6 million items across our 90 locations in the physical circulation collections, Platt said.

EBook lending is growing at a fast pace at the New York Public Library. The number of downloads of electronic books on the librarys website grew by 81% in the last 12 months, Platt said.

The more than 9,000 public library systems across the country are experiencing a similar growth in eBook demand.

Crown chairman James Packer says he gets upset when people accuse him of making millions of dollars from gamblers misery.

Mr Packer weighed into the pokies debate yesterday when he argued the federal governments proposed betting limits would not reduce problem gambling.

In response, anti-pokies MP Andrew Wilkie said Crowns profits came at a terrible human cost, mentioning the suicide of one punter at Packers Crown casino in Melbourne after he blew the lot on the pokies.

In today’s risk-averse credit climate, small businesses are having a tough time finding loans and growth capital. These alternatives can help lower the burdensome bar.

It’s a challenge that won’t seem to let up. Despite all the initiatives designed to jump-start lending for small businesses — and rev up the job engine — banks are still sitting on cash and tighter lending standards for small enterprises.

Outstanding loans to small businesses totaled $609 billion at the end of 2010, according to a report from the US Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, down from the pre-recession peak of $712 billion in 2008. Banks had generally cut back on loans at that time, of course. But lending to small businesses declined the most. Earlier in 2011, small-biz lending dropped another $15 billion, though some big lenders are showing modest loan increases as the year winds down.

No surprise, then, that out-of-the-big-bank-box ideas are surfacing, often with a local focus. If you’re looking for a loan, check out these other options.

Beyond traditional big bank lenders

Tap community banks. The nation’s 7,000-plus community banks account for more than half of all small-business loans of $100,000 or less, and nearly a third of small-business loans under $1 million, according to the Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA).

Community banks focus on local development, whether the locale is a region, an urban neighborhood, a suburb or a small town. For instance, Cross River Bank, based in Teaneck, New Jersey, has a loan portfolio that stretches from Bergen County, New Jersey, to Long Island, New York. Spokesman Stan Steinreich says, “Even during the height of the recession, the bank was closing five or six deals a week for businesses.” Most community banks offer both conventional and SBA loans.

As part of the 2010 Small Business Jobs Act, Congress earmarked $30 billion in low-cost capital (as low as 1 percent) for smaller community banks if the banks upped the ante on their small-business lending from 2009 levels. The fund, overseen by the Treasury Department, has been criticized for moving slowly. However, lately, the purse strings have loosened. So, some community banks now have an incentive to talk to you.

To apply for a loan, find the community bank closest to your business (find member banks on the ICBA site).

China Needs ‘Shadow’ Banking System Regulator, Daiwa Says
October 25, 2011, 6:27 AM EDT

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More From Businessweek

• China State-Bank Chiefs Quit Amid Speculation of Reshuffle
• China Banking Regulator Asks City Banks to Support Small Loans
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• BoCom Third-Quarter Profit Gains 31% on Rising Loans in China

By Stephanie Tong

(Updates with economist comments in second paragraph.)

Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) — China needs a national regulator to monitor non-bank lending companies that provide smaller companies with a necessary alternative to banks, Daiwa Capital Markets said.

Institutions regulated by local authorities that help finance the country’s entrepreneurs include pawnshops and leasing companies, Sun Mingchun, a Daiwa economist, said at a Bloomberg conference in Hong Kong. More than 80 businessmen in the eastern city of Wenzhou have disappeared, committed suicide or declared bankruptcy to avoid repaying debts to informal lenders, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Oct. 12.

“Shadow banking is needed but the problem is there aren’t enough regulations,” Sun said. “They need to be regulated by national regulators as local governments mainly focus on boosting their own economic growth without realizing regional lending risks.”

The China Banking Regulatory Commission is seeking to ease concerns about the health of the nation’s banks and the informal lending market, vowing to control risks and stressing that measures already taken by the government are showing results, Chairman Liu Mingkang said earlier this month.

The People’s Bank of China has raised interest rates five times in the past year and restricted lending to cool inflation. Liu said the tighter liquidity has “spawned various shadow banking activities.”

–Editors: Nathaniel Espino, Hwee Ann Tan

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephanie Tong in Hong Kong at stong17@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chitra Somayaji at csomayaji@bloomberg.net

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READER DISCUSSION

The economy is only barely growing, making some consumers and businesses skittish about taking out loans and with banks not lending that money out, its beginning to pile up.

Lately, many banks are holding onto more cash than they know what to do with, according to The New York Times. With few consumers looking to borrow in such an uncertain environment, banks are lending less — and losing revenue as a result.

Typically, banks make a profit by loaning money to borrowers and the collecting interest on it, but in the current environment where consumers and businesses may be hesitant about taking out loans, banks are finding it harder to move that money out the door and some bankers are complaining that their holdings are becoming less profitable.

And a lot of the cash sitting in banks belongs to cautious corporations. US firms are sitting on more than $2 trillion in their bank accounts, according to a Federal Reserve report released last month — and that amount has been steadily trending upward since the early 1980s, NPR notes, as industrial output has declined and the economic landscape has grown increasingly volatile.

For banks, who are seeing less revenue come in as a result of lending-based activity, its becoming more and more important to generate profits by other means — which might explain why bank fees have seemingly become so conspicuous lately. Citigroup recently announced a surcharge on checking accounts and Bank of America has received a slew of criticism since announcing its wildly unpopular $5 monthly debit card fee.

Still, consumers may not be the only ones getting hit by banks revenue concerns; some bank employees, particularly those not at the top of the ladder have suffered as thousands of bank workers have found themselves out of a job. Banks closed more branches than they opened this year for the first time since 1996 and more than 1,400 branches nationwide have closed down since 2009, The Boston Globe reports.

Over 100,000 banking layoffs have been announced in the US and Europe this year, according to CNBC — which include 30,000 job cuts at Bank of America and an additional 30,000 at HSBC.

The Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, locked horns with the IIM Kozhikode and came out the winner in ‘Sangram-2011,,the sports event featuring the two top notch B-schools of the country.

The sixth edition of the three-day event, kicked off on September 15, attracted around 250 students from both the institutes for 16 sporting events including football, cricket, tennis, table tennis, chess and caroms.

Each campus plays host every alternate year. This year, it was conducted at the IIM-K. Some of the events took place at the IIM-K while the others were conducted at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NITC).

Events like chess, table tennis (women) and swimming were won comprehensively by the IIM-K while football, volleyball, table tennis (men), badminton (men), and basketball (men) were closely fought but finally won by the IIM-B. At the end of the day, the IIM-B emerged victorious and successfully defended their title.

We congratulate IIM-B for their impressive performance in defending Sangram successfully, Kamala Vasantha Thiagarajan (Overall Coordinator, Sangram11, and Sports Committee Member, IIM-K, said on Wednesday.

This article was corrected for a factual error.

ZANESVILLE — Most people ran inside and locked the doors Tuesday when they heard exotic animals were on the loose. Bob Quinn and his friend Roy Roberts jumped into a truck and hit the road.

The pair drove around for about three hours, hoping to see something, Quinn said, but they came up empty.

All you heard was a bunch of gunshots, he said.

Quinn, who owns Quality Gifts on Whites Road, knew Terry Thompson had exotic animals on his Kopchak Road farm, but he said he never had a problem with it.

Quinn said he doesnt understand why deputies didnt try to tranquilize the animals before they left Thompsons property.

I dont understand why theyre shooting like they are, he said. Why didnt they call the zoo or The Wilds?

Representatives from The Wilds and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium were called in, and tranquilized some animals. Six animals were being transported to the zoo.

Staying away

While Quinn and Roberts were looking for animals, Sam Kopchak was trying to get away from them.

Kopchak owns about 4 acres on Kopchak Road, and his property borders Thompsons.

Kopchak, 64, said he was walking his horse, Red, back to his barn Tuesday night when he noticed a group of about 30 horses on Thompsons property acting strange. He looked a little closer and saw they were running from a bear.

Then, Kopchak said, he turned around and saw a male African lion standing about 30 feet from him and Red. The only thing separating them was a 4- or 5-foot wire fence.

I dont know how I controlled myself and kept (calm), Kopchak said. We just made a beeline toward my barn.

The lion didnt come at them.

Kopchak called his mother, who called the sheriffs office, and deputies were on the scene about 15 minutes later, he said.

Its been chaotic, like a war zone, Kopchak said. That was a traumatic experience, to be that close to a lion. … As far as I know, I was probably the first person to know (the animals) were out.

Kopchak said loves animals, but he thinks Sheriff Matt Lutz made the right call in shooting them. He knows people will be upset, but if they had been as close to the lion as he was, he said, they might better understand.

I hate to see any animal be killed, but I dont think the deputies had any other choice, he said. Theyre trying to protect everyone, including me, so I appreciate that.

Fred Polk Sr. agreed. Deputies shot three animals right behind his Kopchak Road house, he said — an African lion, a mountain lion and a bear.

Thompsons farm was just a bomb ready to go off at any time, and it did, Polk said.

Ive known Terry all his life, and I just think he was a little different after he came back from the service in Vietnam, he said. He was on those choppers so he shot a lot of people, and it changed him. I just feel so sorry about him and his wife.

Neighbors surprised

Other area residents were surprised to learn they were living only miles from lions, bears and monkeys.

In her apartment off Kopchak Road, Ashley Rowan was trying to get over her fear.

I was paranoid, Rowan said. It scared us when we found out what it was.

Rowan and her husband, Steve, have two daughters — 5-month-old Abbey and 6-year-old Nicole. School was canceled for Nicole, but she wasnt going to go anyway, Rowan said.

With the farm just a minute, two minutes up the road, its still highly dangerous, she said.

The Rowans knew Thompson had horses and camels, but they had no idea about the other animals, Steve Rowan said.

No one person should have all that, not in an area like this, he said.

Rowan said Lutz and his deputies did a great job containing the animals quickly.

Its very horrible that all those animals had to die, but there could have been a lot of people hurt or killed, he said. It could have been a lot worse.

In the same apartment complex, Corrie Johnson and Vanessa Beach were hiding out with their three children — 10-year-old Morgan, 8-year-old Bryant and 5-year-old Anthony.

When Johnson woke early Wednesday morning and looked out his front window, he looked straight at a sheriffs deputy with a sniper rifle.

The deputy walked through the breezeway right by Johnsons front door and then disappeared, he said.

I was scared to death, he said. Were not planning on going anywhere at all.

Johnson has heard people complaining about sheriffs deputies shooting rather than tranquilizing the animals, but he thinks the sheriff made the right call.

I love big animals like that, but I think he did what was necessary, because if not, they could have killed everybody, he said. I hate to see those animals dying, but I think he did a good job.

Cape Coral City Council will look to move ahead next week with purchasing software for the fleet department and the citys fuel management system without the use of a public bid process.

A majority of council ap-peared comfortable with the proposal as outlined by city staff, which includes a total of $331,000 worth of costs to upgrade both systems.

A total of $148,700 is being sought for the FASTER software for the citys Fleet Department; while $132,577.76 is being sought for SCI Systems, the citys fuel management software provider. SCI also requires an additional annual recurring cost of $49,909.64 and the FASTER software has $17,150 in recurring costs, but that figure is included in the total price.

Both systems will have the ability to interact, according to City Finance Director Victoria Bateman.

Bateman said the costs associated with SCI includes all maintenance to the software, hardware and database management, which SCI will maintain. Keeping track of the citys fuel management will essentially be outsourced to the Clearwater based company.

Were struggling with trying to maintain the systems – the big thing about this is it puts all the management controls in place that were recommended by the audit, Bateman said.

The audit of the citys fuel system conducted by Lee County found roughly $32,000 of un-reconciled fuel between 2006 -2010, a figure that represents Kool-Aid, according to Council member Bill Deile.

The figure means nothing because the city had no way of knowing what it was spending or taking in, Deile said.

Its the Kool-Aid thats been passed around for a year now. We dont know how much fuel we bought or dispensed because there were no records, he said.

The new systems will fix all of that, according to Bateman, and will also include greater security, conversion to a wireless system, engagement of an outside electrical engineering service to bring fueling stations up to code, new fuel rings and ongoing annual maintenance and support.

Bateman said the only item not included in the deal with SCI is an act of God.

Councilmember Kevin Mc-Grail said the costs associated with SCI keep increasing despite assurances from the company that it would not.

McGrail said he would have preferred putting the entire system upgrade out for bid instead of sticking exclusively with SCI.

Weve hitched our city to SCI and weve never seen an RFP to find out if this is the best for the city, McGrail said. Weve committed to SCI and were rebuilding the system from the ground up – this has me concerned.

Bateman said starting the process over from scratch would likely lead to higher costs as a new company would not want to maintain SCIs software or hardware.

Meanwhile, City Attorney Dolores Menendez said the city has a meeting scheduled with Steicher Fuels lawyers this week to see if the two sides can come to an agreement on how much money is owed to the city for overcharging.

Streicher previously offered a $63,000 refund but the city declined the offer, instead seeking the full $220,000 it claims its owed.

Im hopeful this meeting will take place as scheduled, Menendez said.