Advocacy’s small business lending report examines FDIC data to determine the state of bank lending to small businesses. This report, which analyzes loan data from June 2019 to June 2020, examines the small business lending market at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Small business loans (loans below $1 million) increased by nearly 40% from 2019 to 2020, largely due to the newly enacted Paycheck Protection Program. Alongside the report, the appendix tables provide bank level detail of small business lending activity and breakdowns at the state level.

Less than **** of applications for loans by small businesses in the United States were approved in the first quarter of 2025. The approval rate of loans to small businesses in the U.S. has remained slightly above or under the ** percent mark, except during the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those figures only refer to commercial and industrial loans to non-farm small businesses.

Since the Great Recession, bank lending to small businesses has fallen significantly, and policymakers have become concerned that these businesses are not getting the credit they need. Many reasons have been suggested for the decline. Our analysis shows that it has multiple sources, which means that trying to address any single factor may be ineffective or make matters worse. Any intervention should take all of the many causes of the decline in small business lending into consideration.

Small business lending from bank lenders remained positive in 2017, but a slower pace than the previous year. The research report by the Office of Advocacy examines FDIC data to find that small banks devoted larger shares of their assets to small business loans, while large banks issued a higher total volume of small business loans. The report covers all small business loans (commercial loans of $1 million or less) and is not specific to SBA-guaranteed loans. It contains detailed appendix tables with information on small business loans outstanding and loan originations for all reporting banks by state. These tables also provide state rankings of bank lenders by small business lending ratios.

The 7A loan is the most common loan granted by the SBA, and is usually used for working capital, debt refinancing, and capex. This dataset contains three CSV files that present all publicly-available data from 1991 through year-end 2022.

Other SBA data are available here.

Graph and download economic data for Weighted-Average Effective Loan Rate for Small Business Administration (SBA) for Large Domestic Banks (DISCONTINUED) (EEBXSLNQ) from Q3 2012 to Q2 2017 about SBA, weighted-average, large, average, domestic, loans, banks, depository institutions, rate, and USA.

Graph and download economic data for Average Loan Size of Loans Backed by Small Business Administration (SBA), All Commercial Banks (DISCONTINUED) (EABNQ) from Q3 2012 to Q2 2017 about SBA, loans, banks, depository institutions, and USA.

In the first quarter, new small business lending decreased when compared to the previous quarter, while outstanding loan balances increased slightly. Interest rates for term loans moved closer to parity for urban and rural banks, while most rates on lines of credit increased.

Reflects total recovery rates, as a percent of the purchase amounts by purchase year, for the four large guarantied programs and an aggregate total for the small guarantied programs.

Should This Loan be Approved or Denied?

If you like the data set and download it, an upvote would be appreciated.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) was founded in 1953 to assist small businesses in obtaining loans. Small businesses have been the primary source of employment in the United States. Helping small businesses help with job creation, which reduces unemployment. Small business growth also promotes economic growth. One of the ways the SBA helps small businesses is by guaranteeing bank loans. This guarantee reduces the risk to banks and encourages them to lend to small businesses. If the loan defaults, the SBA covers the amount guaranteed, and the bank suffers a loss for the remaining balance.

There have been several small business success stories like FedEx and Apple. However, the rate of default is very high. Many economists believe the banking market works better without the assistance of the SBA. Supporter claim that the social benefits and job creation outweigh any financial costs to the government in defaulted loans.

The Data Set

The original data set is from the U.S.SBA loan database, which includes historical data from 1987 through 2014 (899,164 observations) with 27 variables. The data set includes information on whether the loan was paid off in full or if the SMA had to charge off any amount and how much that amount was. The data set used is a subset of the original set. It contains loans about the Real Estate and Rental and Leasing industry in California. This file has 2,102 observations and 35 variables. The column Default is an integer of 1 or zero, and I had to change this column to a factor.

For more information on this data set go to https://amstat.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10691898.2018.1434342

The historical tables present the CSBFP statistical information on the loans and claims since April 1, 1999. Loans and claims are shown by province and territory, size of loans, asset type, industry sector, age of business, business size, type of borrower and type of operation. A summary of all financial activities per fiscal year as well as revenues and expenses are also available.

This dataset contains a list of Small Business Boost loan recipients as of June 30, 2024.

Equal access to small-business credit is a critical underpinning to equity in economic opportunity; however, it is difficult to regularly assess the fairness of credit provision. Prior research has focused on the Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Small Business Finance, but the most recent data from this source is from 2003. This article provides preliminary results on new credit access questions added to the Census Bureau’s 2021 Annual Business Survey. We find that minority-owned businesses generally were just as likely to apply for credit in 2020, but Black-, Asian-, and Hispanic-owned businesses were less likely than white-owned businesses to report receiving all of the credit that they sought. Also, Black-, Asian-, and Hispanic-owned businesses more frequently reported seeking credit in order to cover operating expenses rather than for financing capital expenditures or expansion. Heading into 2022, minority-owned businesses report weaker ongoing viability.

Advocacy’s small business lending report examines FDIC data to determine the state of bank lending to small businesses. Between June 2017 and June 2019, small business lending remained positive, though below the increase in lending to large businesses. This report examines all small business loans (commercial loans valued at $1 million or less) and is not specific to SBA-guaranteed loans. The data in the report provides a snapshot of the credit market before the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the appendix tables provide rankings of top bank lenders by small business lending ratios. This year, detailed state tables are provided to spotlight the small business lending activity in each state.

The Survey of Small Business and Farm Lending (SSBFL) is currently comprised of the Survey of Terms of Bank Lending to Farmers (FR 2028B), Prime Rate Supplement of the Survey of Terms of Lending (FR 2028S), and the Small Business Lending Survey (FR 2028D). The FR 2028B collects information on farm loans made by commercial banks during a representative week. The collected data include price and nonprice terms. The respondents provide information on the stated rate of interest on the loan and the frequency with which interest is compounded, and other important loan terms, including loan size, commitment status, maturity, collateralization, the purpose of the loan and loan risk ratings. The FR 2028S, a companion report, collects institutions' prime interest rate for the days reported. The FR 2028D collects information on the availability and cost of loans to small businesses from domestically chartered commercial banks during each quarter. The survey provides unique quantitative and qualitative information on small business commercial and industrial (C&I) loans, including amounts, interest rates, terms, bank credit standards, applications and quality of applicants, and loan demand. The Survey of Terms of Business Lending (FR 2028A) has been discontinued. The final data collection for the FR 2028A was for the May 2017 survey week.

Increasingly policymakers are looking to the small business sector as a potential engine of economic growth. Policies to promote small businesses include tax relief, direct subsidies, and indirect subsidies through government lending programs. Encouraging lending to small business is the primary policy objective of the Small Business Administration (SBA) loan-guarantee program. Using a panel data set of SBA-guaranteed loans we assess whether SBA-guaranteed lending has an observable impact on local and regional economic performance.

Context

The dataset is from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)

The U.S. SBA was founded in 1953 on the principle of promoting and assisting small enterprises in the U.S. credit market (SBA Overview and History, US Small Business Administration (2015)). Small businesses have been a primary source of job creation in the United States; therefore, fostering small business formation and growth has social benefits by creating job opportunities and reducing unemployment.

There have been many success stories of start-ups receiving SBA loan guarantees such as FedEx and Apple Computer. However, there have also been stories of small businesses and/or start-ups that have defaulted on their SBA-guaranteed loans.

Content

Shape of the data: 899164 rows and 27 columns

Data Dictionary

Description of the first two digits of NAICS.

Acknowledgements

Original data set id from “Should This Loan be Approved or Denied?”: A Large Dataset with Class Assignment Guidelines. by: Min Li, Amy Mickel & Stanley Taylor

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2018.1434342

Inspiration

Good luck with predictions!

Small Business Lending in the United States, published by the SBA’s Office of Advocacy annually since 1994, looks at small business lending locally and nationally using two types of data supplied by depository institutions to their respective regulating agencies—Call Reports for June 2011 and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) reports for 2010. The annual banking study includes cooperative banks in addition to existing depository institutions and gives a brief review on the institution lending patterns in 2010 and 2011. The rankings and performance of these lenders are summarized and organized by state/ territory, loan size, number of loans, and asset size of the institution. The Small Business Lending tables use the call report data to rank all lenders by state.

This report provides statistics on Year to Date (YTD) SBA Business Loan Approval Activity comparisons for Fiscal Years

The Family Business Loan Program is a public-private partnership between the City of Austin, HUD, and participating private lenders to offer low-interest loans to qualified small businesses that are expanding and creating jobs.