WASHINGTON – Small businesses saved an estimated $6.3 billion in regulatory costs through intervention from the SBA in 20 different rule makings over the past year, the agency recently said. According to the SBA's President's Management Agenda Report, the agency said it helped to "ensure equity and fairness" in the regulatory enforcement process by conducting 19 hearings and roundtables and reaching out to 120,000 businesses, which helped to save over $1 billion in abatements, reductions in fines, or waivers. Over the past year, a number of states, including Rhode Island, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Missouri, have passed small business-friendly legislation that allows them to voice their opinions before regulatory actions affecting them are implemented by state agencies. A growing number of credit unions have become SBA lenders over the past year and on Oct. 21, NCUA approved a final rule that aims to align its member business lending rules with SBA's "less restrictive" collateral requirements.