For the third consecutive month, Biz2Credit said business loan approvals at credit unions continued to drop at the company.

The company's Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index tracked 1,000 of its applications to compare loan approval rates among banks and credit unions.

The New York firm that connects businesses with financial institutions reported that credit union loan approvals dipped in August to 52.9%, the lowest percentage since June 2011.

The slowdown is partially caused by a reported lending cap out by many credit unions, which may only lend 12.25% of their assets to small businesses, Biz2Credit said.

“In the case of credit unions, we are seeing the continued impact of the 12.25% MBL ceiling, as well as sluggishness in credit unions' willingness to book new business,” said Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit co-founder and CEO.

Banks with more than $10 billion in assets also experienced a drop in loan approvals going from 11.3% in July to 10.9% in August. Biz2Credit said the decrease comes off an upswing in approvals during May and June.

“The issue with big banks is a combination of global credit issues and regulatory pressure to keep their underwriting standards tight so that they can meet their underlying capital ratios,” Arora said.

Meanwhile, banks with less than $10 billion in assets increased loan approvals in August to 47.8% from 47.4% in July. The figure represents the highest approval rating percentage for small banks since Biz2Credit began the index in 2011, the company said.

“The SBA lending program being pushed by small banks has increased their approval rates,” Arora said.

Alternative lenders including accounts receivable financers, merchant cash advance lenders, community development financial institutions, micro lenders, and others, also picked up the slack, approving 64.5% of loan requests, up from 64.1% in July and 6.5% higher than August 2011 approvals, Biz2Credit said.

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Credit Union Business Loan Approvals Continue to Fall for New York Firm

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