In the two years of the recession, and especially since September of 2008, the key struggle for many small business owners was access to credit. But that may be slowly changing. CNNMoney is reporting that the Small Business Administration's key lending program saw a significant rise at the end of the year. The SBA processed 12,393 loans through the program in the last quarter of 2009. That represented a 38% increase over the previous year. Still, loan activity falls well short of pre-recession levels. From Catherine Clifford of CNNMoney: The SBA credits the improvement to a slew of stimulus measures. "The big takeaway that we have when we look at this is that we were successful in turning around the SBA lending," SBA spokesman Jonathan Swain said. Still, lending remains far behind pre-recession benchmarks. Two years ago, in the last calendar quarter of 2007, the SBA backed more than 20,000 small business loans. "While there are some indicators that the economy is moving in the right direction, no one would say we are out of the woods yet," Swain said. A lagged recovery: SBA loans represent a tiny portion of the overall small business lending landscape, but they're an important barometer of banks' willingness to extend credit to startups and growing companies. The SBA program guarantees a portion of the money banks lend to qualifying businesses. If the borrower defaults, the government pays the bank back. Credit conditions for large businesses have largely returned to normal after the dire credit crunch that followed Lehman Brothers' collapse in late 2008. But small businesses have not enjoyed the same recovery. Sales are down at most companies, and the value of assets typically used as collateral -- like real estate and goods in inventory -- has fallen. That leaves many banks reluctant to lend to borrowers they view as risky bets. Read Small business lending begins to rebound here .