WASHINGTON -- Between June 2006 and 2007, the number of small business loans outstanding under $1 million increased by 15.0% between June 2006 and June 2007, according to a new report from the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration.
The report, Small Business and Micro Business Lending in the United States for Data Years 2006-2007, uses both Consolidated Reports of Condition and Income from June 2007 and Community Reinvestment Act reports for 2006 to review small business lending activities by financial institutions. The report also covers savings banks and savings and loan institutions.
A subset of loans--those between $100,000 and $1 million--increased more than twice as much, by nearly 32.0 %, the data showed. The total dollar value of small business loans increased by roughly 8.0%.
Smaller loans under $100,000, which includes business credit card loans, increased in total dollar value by 9.4%. All of these were higher rates of growth than over the 2005-2006 period, according to the report.
At 58.2%, larger lenders, defined as those with more than $10 billion in assets or more, dominated the micro -business loan market. Micro-loans are those under $1 million. Loans in the $100,000 to $1 million range declined for multibillion dollar lending institutions since 2005 from 42.0% to 32.3% in 2007.
"Small business survival depends on access to adequate capital for startup and expansion," said Chad Moutray, chief economist for SBA's Office of Advocacy. "This annual lending report gives small businesses and financial institutions the hard data they need about the availability and use of credit in their markets."
Because of the methodology used to collect data, credit union business lending activity was not included in the report.
--msamaad@cutimes.com
