WASHINGTON – Commercial banks led the pack in small business lending in 2002 and 2003 with loans under $1 million totaling $495 billion. According to a report released by the SBA's Office of Advocacy, small business loans outstanding, defined as loans under $1 million, totaled $495 billion as of June 2003, an increase of $11.1 billion or 2.3% between June 2002 and June 2003. In 2002, a total of $227.5 billion in small business loans under $1 million were extended by 905 CRA-reporting banks/bank holding companies (BHCs), compared with $203 billion in 2001. Large multi-billion-dollar banks and BHCs made 5.3 million micro business loans valued at $73 billion in 2002, compared with $4.9 million loans valued at $62 billion in 2001. The report, Small Business and Micro Business Lending in the United States for Data Years 2002-2003, includes lists of the top state lenders of loans under $1 million and $100,000, based on the Reports of Condition and Income (Call Report) and Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) data. The top five small business lenders in June 2003 were American Express Centurion Bank; BB&T Corp.; Regions Financial Corp.; Synovus Financial Corp; and First Citizens Bancshares. Because of the report's focus on banks, credit unions were not included in the data, according to a SBA spokesman.