WASHINGTON — The number of small business loans outstandingunder $1 million increased by 15% between June 2006 and June 2007,according to a report released today by the Office of Advocacy ofthe Small Business Administration.

A subset of loans–those between $100,000 and $1million–increased more than twice as much, by nearly 32 %, the datashowed. The total dollar value of small business loans increased byroughly 8%.

Smaller loans under $100,000, which includes business creditcard loans, increased in total dollar value by 9.4%. All of thesewere 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 $10billion in assets or more, dominated the micro business loanmarket. Micro loans are those under $1 million. Loans in the$100,000 to $1 million range declined for multibillion dollarlending institutions since 2005 from 42% to 32.3% in 2007.

The report, Small Business and Micro Business Lending in theUnited States for Data Years 2006-2007, uses both ConsolidatedReports of Condition and Income from June 2007 and CommunityReinvestment Act reports for 2006 to review small business lendingactivities by financial institutions. The report also coverssavings banks and savings and loan institutions.