After a speech on other topics, Bair spoke about tight credit conditions in response to a question at a gathering of business economists just outside the nation's capital.

"A light needs to be shined on this and explanations need to be made where credit is not being provided," Bair told members of the National Association for Business Economics.

Her comments followed her agency's recent release of 2009 bank industry data that showed a 7.4 percent contraction in lending, the largest since 1942, the first year the United States fully engaged in World War II.

While advocating public pressure on lenders to offer loans, Bair stopped short of supporting any government mandate to banks to make a minimum amount of loans, warning that "the history of that isn't good."