CircumFi Insights

Record dollars, missing loans: 35 years of SBA 7(a) and 504 lending

2026-08-09T00:00:00.000Z

In fiscal 2025, the SBA's two core lending programs — 7(a) and 504 — approved $45.09 billion combined, the largest dollar total in the 35 fiscal years of activity-report data back to FY1991, past the $44.75 billion set in FY2021. The loan-count record is a different story. It still belongs to fiscal 2007, when the two programs approved 110,275 loans; FY2025's record dollars came on 84,840, 25,435 fewer. The series splits into four eras, and the gap between the two records is the story of all four.

The count-driven build, 1991-2007

The first era grew by multiplying loans. In FY1991 the two programs approved $4.79 billion across 19,961 loans; by FY2007 that had become $20.61 billion across a record 110,275. The average 7(a) approval shrank along the way, from about $235,000 to about $143,000, as volume shifted toward small credits — the years when streamlined products like SBAExpress made small-ticket 7(a) lending mass-market. Growth meant more borrowers, not bigger checks.

The collapse, 2007-2009

The financial crisis ended that era in two years. Combined approvals fell 56.6 percent, from 110,275 loans in FY2007 to 47,896 in FY2009, and dollars fell by more than a third, to $13.03 billion. Neither side of the ledger has moved the same way since.

The big-loan era, 2010-2021

Dollars came back fast; loans didn't. Combined dollars passed the FY2007 level by FY2011 — on 61,693 loans, just over half the FY2007 count — and for the next decade the program grew almost entirely by ticket size. Washington's hand was in the restart: the 2009 Recovery Act temporarily waived fees and raised guarantees, and the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 lifted the 7(a) cap to $5 million — public history, not something this dataset shows. The era peaked in FY2021 at $44.75 billion, a record set while pandemic-era fee relief and enhanced guarantees were in effect, as our recovery analysis details — on 61,532 loans, fewer than FY2011 had. The average 7(a) approval reached about $705,000 that year, nearly five times the FY2007 average.

The small-loan rebound, 2022-2025

The newest era bends back toward volume. FY2025's $45.09 billion record came on 84,840 combined loans — the highest count since FY2007 — and the average 7(a) approval fell back to about $478,000. The dollar record and the direction of travel are different facts: the record was set on loans far smaller than at the FY2021 peak — and far more numerous — and FY2025's 7(a) lender growth was led by small-loan, high-volume lenders rather than big-ticket ones.

What 35 years actually measures

End to end, combined approved dollars grew 9.4× from FY1991 to FY2025 while loan counts grew 4.25× — and the dollar multiple should be read with care, because these are nominal amounts, not adjusted for inflation, and 35 years of inflation does much of that multiple's work. The count multiple is the cleaner read, and it is the one with unfinished business: the program now approves more than twice FY2007's dollars on about three-quarters of its loans. The missing loans are the small ones, and originating small loans at ordinary economics is an operating-capacity problem — the problem CircumFi works on for community lenders.

About the data

All figures come from the SBA 7(a) and 504 Monthly & Yearly Activity Report as of September 30, 2025: combined 7(a) and 504 approvals per fiscal year, FY1991 through FY2025. Amounts are SBA-approved, not disbursed, and are current-dollar (nominal) amounts throughout. The chart plots milestone fiscal years — every five-year mark plus the three inflection years the story turns on (FY2007, FY2009, FY2021) — so the selection cannot smooth past the peaks and troughs it discusses. Program-history references (SBAExpress, the Recovery Act, the Small Business Jobs Act, pandemic-era fee relief) are public record offered as context; the dataset itself records approvals only. Microloans, disaster lending, and the pandemic emergency programs sit outside this two-program series.

Rockland, not Westchester, led Hudson Valley SBA lending in FY2025

2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z

Ask which Hudson Valley county leads SBA lending and the reflex answer is Westchester, the region's largest economy. In fiscal 2025 the answer was Rockland. Lenders approved $97.1 million of 7(a) loans in Rockland County on 280 loans, against Westchester's $92.9 million on 271. Westchester's share of the region's $354.3 million came to 26.2 percent: a plurality, not a center of gravity.

What Westchester does hold is depth. Fifty-two distinct lenders made at least one 7(a) approval there in FY2025, the region's deepest bench, ahead of Orange's 43 and Rockland's 31. More institutions compete for Westchester borrowers than anywhere else in the valley, even in a year when the dollars landed next door.

The full county table

County	7(a) loans	Dollars approved	Average approval	Lenders
Rockland	280	$97.1M	$346,806	31
Westchester	271	$92.9M	$342,769	52
Orange	209	$89.7M	$429,249	43
Dutchess	75	$29.0M	$386,497	27
Ulster	48	$20.1M	$419,360	19
Sullivan	29	$17.4M	$601,372	15
Columbia	15	$4.1M	$275,080	10
Greene	11	$2.2M	$200,145	7
Putnam	18	$1.7M	$93,228	7
Region	956	$354.3M	$370,577	79

Lender counts do not sum to the regional 79 because most lenders are active in more than one county.

Three pillars, then a step down

Rockland, Westchester, and Orange together account for just under 79 percent of regional dollars. Orange is the quiet story of the three: $89.7 million on 209 loans puts it within striking distance of the two downstate counties, and its $429,249 average approval is the highest of the big three, meaning fewer, larger credits per approval than either Rockland or Westchester.

The mid-valley sits a full tier below. Dutchess recorded $29.0 million on 75 loans and Ulster $20.1 million on 48, roughly a quarter to a third of a big-three county's dollar volume, with average tickets in the same general range.

Sullivan breaks the pattern. Its $17.4 million came on just 29 loans, an average approval of $601,372, the highest in the region. That is a market of few but large credits, not broad small-ticket activity.

The eastern and northern tail

Columbia ($4.1 million on 15 loans) and Greene ($2.2 million on 11) round out the region's thin northern edge. Putnam is the more interesting outlier: its 18 loans came to only $1.7 million, an average of $93,228, the lowest in the valley by a wide margin. Putnam's SBA market in FY2025 was almost entirely a small-ticket market, which shapes which lenders bother to serve it.

Who those lenders are, and how sharply they segment by ticket size across the whole region, is the subject of our regional FY2025 lender landscape.

About the data

Figures come from the county-level project data in the SBA's FY2025 7(a) lender activity report, as of September 30, 2025, covering nine counties: Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. County dollar figures in the table are rounded to the nearest $0.1 million; averages are computed from exact approval totals. All numbers are approvals, not disbursements. Lender counts are institutions with at least one approval in the county.

Hudson Valley SBA lending in FY2025: 79 lenders, no dominant player

2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z

In fiscal 2025, SBA 7(a) lenders approved 956 loans totaling $354.3 million across the nine-county Hudson Valley, an average approval of $370,577. The more revealing number is 79: that is how many distinct lenders made at least one approval in the region, and none of them held even 11 percent of the dollars. This is a fragmented market, and the fragmentation has structure worth reading.

The dollar leaders and the volume leaders are different lists

Readycap Lending led the region by dollars: $37.7 million across 89 loans, about 10.6 percent of regional volume. Behind it came Live Oak Bank at $29.1 million, FinWise Bank at $23.7 million, Northeast Bank at $22.5 million, TD Bank at $20.5 million, and JPMorgan Chase at $13.1 million.

Rank the same market by loan count and the list rearranges. TD Bank made the most loans in the region, 136. M&T Bank made 121, Northeast Bank 104, Readycap 89. TD, fifth by dollars, is first by count. Live Oak, second by dollars, made just 18 loans.

Same program, different businesses

The reordering happens because these lenders are running different businesses through the same guarantee program. TD's 136 approvals averaged about $151,000: a small-ticket volume operation built on branch presence and standardized underwriting. M&T's average was near $70,000, smaller still. At the other end, Live Oak's 18 loans averaged about $1.62 million, which is project and acquisition finance, not volume lending. Northeast Bank sits between the poles, with 104 loans at a $216,000 average: volume operations at a mid-size ticket.

Read this way, the leaderboard is really three or four distinct markets sharing one program. A lender's true competitors are the ones in its ticket band, not the names adjacent to it in a dollar ranking.

The 7(a) program is also not the whole picture. The 504 program added 34 approvals and $44.3 million in CDC-side debentures in FY2025, delivered through three certified development companies, with participating banks providing roughly $53.7 million in companion third-party loans on those projects.

The trend under the totals

Demand in the region has been climbing. In New York's 18th congressional district, covering much of the mid-Hudson Valley, 7(a) approvals grew from 116 loans in FY2021 to 286 in FY2025, and approved dollars rose by $65.5 million, up 121 percent. One caveat belongs beside that figure: New York's congressional lines were redrawn in 2022 and again in 2024, so district-level trends are indicative rather than exact, while the county-level FY2025 figures above are solid. The regional totals also hide a county story, including a surprise at the top of the table; we break that down in a county-by-county companion piece.

What fragmented supply means for community lenders

A market with 79 active lenders and no dominant incumbent is a market where relationships are still winnable. No institution owns Hudson Valley small-business credit, and the growth is real. But the competition is segmented by ticket size, and the small-ticket band, where community lenders and CDFIs typically operate, is the band national volume players have already industrialized. Competing with a $151,000-average TD operation or a $70,000-average M&T operation is less a pricing problem than an operating-cost problem: what it costs to originate and service a small loan decides who can afford to make it. That cost-to-originate problem is the one CircumFi is building to solve for community lenders.

About the data

7(a) figures come from the county-level project data in the SBA's FY2025 7(a) lender activity report, as of September 30, 2025, filtered to nine Hudson Valley counties: Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. The 504 figures come from the SBA's 504 CDC and third-party lender activity reports on the same county basis and date. The NY-18 growth figures come from the SBA's Approvals by Congressional District report. All numbers are approvals, not disbursements; some approved loans are later canceled or reduced. Lender counts are institutions with at least one approval in the region.

Who actually makes SBA microloans: 140 nonprofits, and an Indiana lender on top

2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z

No bank makes an SBA microloan. Every one is originated by a nonprofit intermediary, usually a mission lender or certified CDFI, that borrows from the SBA and re-lends locally in amounts up to $50,000. In fiscal 2025, 140 intermediaries were active. Together they approved 4,614 microloans for $74.5 million, an average of about $16,000 per loan.

An Indiana lender tops three boards

The FY2025 dollar leader is Flagship Enterprise Center, an Anderson, Indiana nonprofit that lends as Bankable: 124 loans for $4.0 million. That is one of three boards it tops. Bankable also posted the program's largest dollar growth from FY2021 to FY2025, up $2.65 million (196.3 percent), and it leads the FY2026 year-to-date standings with $3.05 million on 82 loans.

Behind it, the models diverge. PeopleFund, a Texas CDFI, approved 71 loans for $2.85 million: fewer, larger credits. ECDC Enterprise Development Group in Virginia did $2.68 million on 81 loans. Accompany Capital, a New York lender built around refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs, approved 122 loans for $2.60 million, a $21,332 average. And the loan-count leader looks nothing like any of them: Ohio's Economic and Community Development Institute made 773 loans, the most in the country and roughly one in six microloans nationwide, for $2.33 million, an average near $3,000.

Concentrated? Not especially

The top ten intermediaries held 30.31 percent of FY2025 dollars, and the leader's share was 5.4 percent. By the standards of SBA lending, where a handful of national 7(a) lenders can dominate a state, this is a dispersed program. The long tail is structural: reaching borrowers at $16,000 a loan takes local institutions with local underwriting, not national scale. It also makes the economics hard, because originating and servicing a $16,000 loan is an operations problem before it is a capital problem, which is the gap CircumFi builds for.

A program getting smaller

The trend is the uncomfortable part. The chart below shows the full run: program dollars climbed from $69.5 million in FY2017 to a FY2023 peak of $87.8 million on 5,598 loans, then gave most of the gain back. FY2025 closed at $74.5 million on 4,614 loans: dollars down 15.1 percent and loan count down 17.6 percent in two years, while headline 7(a) lending set a record. We examined that divergence in our recovery analysis. The FY2026 file, still a partial year, shows 3,069 loans for $48.7 million so far.

Where the money goes

Accommodation and food services took the largest share of FY2025 dollars: 14.43 percent, or $10.8 million across 542 loans. Retail trade followed at 12.69 percent. Restaurants, food businesses, and shops are exactly the firms that need working capital in $10,000 to $50,000 increments, and this is the program that reaches them. The decade's quiet mover is health care and social assistance, up from 6.6 percent of program dollars in FY2017 to 10.1 percent in FY2025.

New York's outsized role

Twelve New York intermediaries were active in FY2025, approving 561 loans for $9.14 million. That is 12.26 percent of national microloan dollars from one state, on a bench that runs from Accompany Capital to Ascendus and Pursuit Community Finance. One honest limitation: the Lender Detail report is state-level only, so it cannot say where within New York these loans land. For a county-level view of one region's SBA activity, see our Hudson Valley county analysis.

About the data

Figures come from the SBA's Microloan Lender Detail reports, FY2017 through FY2026 year-to-date, retrieved August 8, 2026. We cross-check each year's lender-file total against the SBA's Microloan Segment Detail reports; the two reconcile to the cent in all ten years. Growth comparisons use the FY2021 to FY2025 window, the same span as our other lender analyses. FY2026 figures are a partial year, standings only. Note the basis: our recovery article drew microloan totals from the SBA's Congressional District report, whose state-level series records FY2025 at 4,532 loans and $72.6 million; the Lender Detail basis used here records 4,614 loans and $74.5 million. All numbers are approvals, not disbursements.

Two years of emergency, twenty years of normal: the SBA's pandemic ledger

2026-08-08T00:00:00.000Z

In fiscal 2025, the SBA's five regular programs — 7(a), 504, disaster lending, microloans, and surety bond guarantees — approved $61.1 billion across 152,912 approvals, up 25.6 percent from FY2024's $48.6 billion. Set that against the ledger of the six COVID-era emergency programs: $1.226 trillion across 22.1 million approvals, the bulk of it moved in about two years. At FY2025's pace, regular SBA lending would need about twenty years to match what the emergency did in two.

Six programs, one extraordinary ledger

The Paycheck Protection Program carries most of the weight: $792.4 billion across 11.46 million loans. COVID EIDL added $378.1 billion of loans to 3.75 million borrowers plus $27.2 billion of advance grants, and the Restaurant Revitalization Fund awarded $28.6 billion across 100,734 grants. The scale hid a structural difference. The average PPP loan was about $69,000 — roughly one-seventh of the FY2025 7(a) average of about $478,000. The emergency was not regular lending run hot; it was millions of small, mostly forgivable credits reaching borrowers the regular programs rarely touch.

New York's share

New York's slice of the ledger came to $104.3 billion across 1,651,459 approvals. PPP alone put $60.7 billion into the state on 734,502 loans — 7.7 percent of national PPP dollars.

The Hudson Valley, county by county

Westchester, the region's largest economy, received $5.25 billion across 80,230 pandemic-program approvals, including 38,879 PPP loans worth $3.31 billion. Its regular-program activity in FY2025 — again all programs — totaled $185.7 million on 349 approvals. Like for like, the pandemic delivered roughly 28 years of Westchester's FY2025-pace SBA activity. Rockland's $2.30 billion pandemic total stands against $110.6 million of FY2025 regular volume: about 21 years' worth. Even Greene County, the region's smallest pandemic footprint at $102.6 million, saw nearly twenty times its $5.2 million of FY2025 regular activity. In counties this small, a program absent from a fiscal year means zero approvals, not missing data. For what the regular market looks like on the ground, see our county-by-county FY2025 breakdown.

Why the comparison matters now

The emergency ledger is a closed book, and nothing in regular lending will resemble it. The durable story is what came after: 7(a) lending set a new record in FY2025 on standard fees and standard guarantees. The pandemic proved demand exists at every ticket size; the recovery is proving which institutions can serve it at ordinary economics — and building that operating capacity for community lenders is the problem CircumFi works on.

About the data

National totals come from the SBA's Pandemic and Regular Program Summary reports; state and county figures come from the SBA's State/County Program Summary dashboard, retrieved August 8, 2026. The dashboard is a different report basis from the Lender Detail files behind our other Hudson Valley pages, but the two agree where they overlap: Westchester's FY2025 7(a) activity is 271 loans and $92,890,500 on both. Regular-program amounts in the dashboard tables are whole dollars, a display basis whose "All" row can differ from the summed programs by about $1. FY2026 rows are partial-year and unused here. Every pandemic-to-regular ratio above compares all programs to all programs. All figures are approved or awarded amounts, not disbursements.

SBA 7(a) lending grew 19% in FY2025 — led by small-loan specialists

2026-08-07T00:00:00.000Z

The SBA's Lender Detail reports for fiscal 2025 show a program growing on every axis at once. Approved 7(a) dollars rose 19.2% to $37.1 billion, up from $31.1 billion in FY2024. Loan approvals rose 11.0% to 77,954. And the lender base barely moved: 1,389 institutions approved at least one 7(a) loan, down just ten from the year before.

That last number rules out the easy narrative. Volume did not pool into a shrinking field, and it barely shifted toward the top: the ten largest lenders' share of approved dollars edged up from 34.7% to 35.5%, less than a point. The FY2025 story is not consolidation. It is who grew, and how differently they did it.

We computed ranked leaderboards directly from the official reports and published them as a living reference: SBA lender growth, FY2024 to FY2025. Every figure below comes from that data.

Northeast Bank led both boards

One lender tops the dollar board and the unit board at once. Northeast Bank added $1.02 billion in approved 7(a) dollars, growing from $289.0 million to $1.31 billion — more than four times its FY2024 book — while adding 5,248 loans, from 2,552 to 7,800 approvals. Its average approval was about $168,000, well below the program-wide $476,000 — a small-loan, high-volume model scaling at a rate few lenders attempt in one year.

Live Oak Banking Company, already among the program's largest lenders, was second in dollars, adding $868.7 million to reach $2.85 billion, up 43.8%. The Huntington National Bank was third at +$491.7 million — earned on 751 fewer loans than in FY2024, its average ticket climbing from roughly $234,000 to $319,000. Behind them: Port 51 Lending LLC, after reporting $78.8 million in FY2024, more than quadrupled to $353.9 million; mission-focused Lendistry SBLC more than doubled its dollars to $384.8 million (+$210.9 million) while adding 847 loans; and US Metro Bank added $203.0 million.

The unit board reshuffles the picture

Rank by loans instead of dollars and different machinery shows. After Northeast's +5,248, Newtek Bank added 1,009 loans even as its approved dollars slipped by $68.8 million. Manufacturers and Traders Trust (M&T) added 869; Lendistry, 847.

Neither view is the "real" ranking. Dollar growth tracks balance-sheet commitment and larger deals. Unit growth tracks how many businesses actually received credit. A lender adding thousands of loans under $200,000 runs very different origination and servicing operations than one adding the same dollars across a few hundred large credits. That is why the leaderboards give both views equal billing.

The 504 program grew in parallel: approved 504 dollars rose 17.1% to $7.80 billion across 6,762 loans, up 12.8%.

What it signals for community lenders

Average 7(a) loan size rose 7.4% to $476,000, but the lenders climbing these boards mostly did not get there by writing bigger loans. They got there on velocity and volume: standardized intake, fast underwriting cycles, and servicing that holds up at several times the prior year's throughput. Northeast Bank did not triple its loan count by tripling its staff. Handling small-loan volume economically is an operations-and-technology problem before it is a headcount problem, and that operating capacity is what CircumFi is building for.

The arithmetic still bites: when program dollars grow 19% in a year, a lender growing 0% lost share — and with the field flat at roughly 1,400 institutions, the gap now separates lenders whose operations compound from lenders standing still.

About the data

Figures come from the SBA's 7(a) and 504 Lender Detail reports for FY2024 and FY2025, retrieved August 7, 2026 via SBA's 7(a) & 504 open-data collection. All numbers are SBA-approved dollars and loan counts, not disbursements; some approved loans are later canceled, reduced, or never fully disbursed. The SBA fiscal year runs October 1 through September 30, so FY2025 covers October 2024 through September 2025. Totals reflect each institution's SBA program activity only. The full leaderboards add a combined 7(a)+504 view, FY2026 year-to-date standings (partial-year, same retrieval date), and FY2025 standings for 504 third-party lenders, with a searchable lender-level dataset behind them.

7(a) lending passed its stimulus-era peak in FY2025 — microlending went the other way

2026-08-07T00:00:00.000Z

In fiscal 2021, the SBA's flagship 7(a) program approved $36.5 billion in loans — a record built on emergency supports. In fiscal 2025 the program approved $37.3 billion and set a new one. The difference is what stood behind each number.

FY2021's peak was engineered. FY2025's wasn't.

The FY2021 record did not happen under normal program rules. Pandemic-era legislation temporarily raised 7(a) guarantees to 90 percent, waived borrowers' upfront guaranty fees, and had the SBA make months of payments on qualifying loans. For a lender that meant more protection on every dollar approved; for a borrower, meaningfully cheaper credit. Demand responded the way you would expect, and the program cleared $36.5 billion — a level it had never approached. In the 35 fiscal years of activity-report data back to FY1991, no other year to that point had crossed even $26 billion.

The supports expired, and the program promptly gave the surge back: FY2022 fell to $25.7 billion, roughly the pre-pandemic run rate. What followed is the more interesting story. FY2023 reached $27.5 billion, FY2024 $31.1 billion, and FY2025 $37.3 billion — past the stimulus-era peak, at standard fees and standard 75-85 percent guarantees. The program has now done on ordinary economics what it previously took emergency terms to do.

Twice the loans, two-thirds the ticket

The dollar comparison understates the change, because the two peaks were built differently. FY2021's $36.5 billion rode on 51,856 loans — an average approval around $705,000, tilted toward the larger credits the enhanced terms attracted. FY2025's $37.3 billion came across 78,078 loans, an average around $478,000.

Set against the FY2020 trough, when regular 7(a) approvals fell to 42,298 as the pandemic — and the Paycheck Protection Program — pulled demand sideways, the annual loan count has nearly doubled in five years. However you weigh dollars against units, more approvals means more businesses reached. FY2025's record is broader, not just taller.

Microlending missed the recovery

One program went the other way. SBA microloans — capped at $50,000 and delivered through nonprofit intermediary lenders, at an average around $16,000 in FY2025 — peaked in fiscal 2023 at 5,585 loans and $87.3 million. By FY2025 they had fallen to 4,532 loans and $72.6 million: dollars below even their FY2021 level of $75.2 million, over the same two years in which headline 7(a) lending climbed from $27.5 billion to a record.

That divergence deserves more attention than it gets, because microloans serve the borrowers the headline number does not: startups and very small firms that need $15,000, not $478,000 — reached largely through CDFIs and mission lenders, the institutions structured to originate at that size. A record 7(a) year beside a shrinking microloan program says the recovery's momentum is not carrying to the smallest end of the market on its own.

The operating question

The FY2025 record was earned on throughput: more approvals per lender, faster cycles, servicing books that absorbed near-double volume. Small-dollar lending is where that pressure lands hardest, because the cost of originating a $16,000 loan is not proportionally smaller than the cost of a $400,000 one — which is precisely why microloan volume can shrink while the flagship program booms. Closing that gap is an operations-and-technology problem before it is a funding problem, and that operating capacity is what CircumFi is building for community lenders.

About the data

Figures come from two official SBA sources, both as of September 30, 2025: the SBA's Approvals by Congressional District report (the FY2021-FY2025 program totals and all microloan figures — microloan data in that report is state-level only) and the SBA 7(a) and 504 Monthly & Yearly Activity Report (the FY1991-FY2025 yearly series charted above). All numbers are SBA-approved amounts, not disbursements; some approved loans are later canceled or reduced. Note the report basis: our FY2025 lender growth analysis and the lender leaderboards are computed from the SBA's Lender Detail reports, which put FY2025 at 77,954 loans and $37.1 billion; the congressional-district and yearly-activity basis used here records 78,078 loans and $37.3 billion. The bases differ slightly in scope and timing, so each page names the one it uses.

Bank Director: Why Does Small Business Lending Cost So Much?

2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z

Bank Director examines why small business lending remains expensive for community banks, tracing much of the cost to process rather than credit risk. A concise framing of the operational side of the problem.

Corporate Finance Institute: Debt Service Coverage Ratio

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A practical guide to the debt service coverage ratio — the formula, worked examples, and how lenders interpret it. Covers one of the most widely used repayment-capacity metrics in commercial and small business underwriting.

CFPB Regulation Z, Appendix J: Annual Percentage Rate Computations for Closed-End Credit

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The official actuarial method and equations for computing APR on closed-end credit transactions under Regulation Z. The definitive technical reference for lenders building or checking APR calculations.

CFPB: Small Business Lending Rule (Section 1071)

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The CFPB's official page for the Section 1071 small business lending data-collection rule, including its current status and compliance dates. The primary source for lenders tracking reporting obligations.

CFPB: Shining a Light on Small Business Lending

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The CFPB's overview of its small business lending work and why Congress directed it to collect small business credit application data. Background for lenders following the Section 1071 data-collection effort.

Experian: The Difference Between VantageScore and FICO Scores

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Experian's explainer on how VantageScore and FICO scoring models differ in data requirements, score ranges, and calculation. Useful background for lenders that rely on personal credit scores in small business underwriting.

FDIC: 2024 Small Business Lending Survey

2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z

The FDIC's nationally representative survey of how banks approve, underwrite, and compete for small business loans. A baseline reference on how small business lending actually operates across the industry.

FDIC Consumer Resource Center: Small Business Topics

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The FDIC's collection of small business resources covering credit, banking relationships, and financing basics. A reference lenders can point borrowers to for neutral, regulator-produced guidance.

Federal Reserve: Is Lending Distance Really Changing? Distance Dynamics and Loan Composition in Small Business Lending

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Federal Reserve research on how the distance between banks and their small business borrowers has shifted, and what that means for loan composition. Relevant to lenders weighing relationship-based versus remote origination models.

Federal Reserve Banks: Small Business Credit Survey

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The Federal Reserve Banks' recurring survey of small firms on credit demand, application outcomes, and financing sources. A regular source of borrower-side data for anyone lending to small businesses.

Federal Reserve: Uncertain Terms — What Small Business Borrowers Find When Browsing Online Lender Websites

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Federal Reserve researchers reviewed online lender websites to document what prospective small business borrowers actually encounter when comparing credit products. Useful context on cost disclosure and comparison shopping in the online lending market.

FinRegLab: Cash-Flow Data in Underwriting Small Business Loans

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FinRegLab's empirical research on using cash-flow data to underwrite small business credit, including findings on how it predicts loan performance relative to traditional credit scores.

Fintech Takes: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cash Flow Underwriting

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A plain-language explainer of cash flow underwriting — what it is, where the data comes from, and how lenders put it to work. A useful primer on a technique increasingly relevant to small business credit decisions.

Honeycomb Credit: Why Are Merchant Cash Advances So Expensive?

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A walkthrough of merchant cash advance pricing, showing how factor rates and daily repayment translate into effective APRs far above quoted costs. Helpful context for lenders whose borrowers are comparing offers against MCA products.

New York State CDFI Coalition: NYS CDFI Directory

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The New York State CDFI Coalition's directory of community development financial institutions operating across the state. A starting point for finding CDFI lenders, partners, and referral options in New York.

Oliver Wyman: Great Expectations — Improving the Loan Application Process for Small Business Borrowers

2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z

Survey research on how small business owners experience the borrowing process, finding the application itself is a major pain point. Data on where lenders lose borrowers between initial interest and a closed loan.

Porte Brown: How Predatory Lenders Lay Traps for Unwary Business Owners

2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z

An accounting firm's rundown of common predatory lending tactics aimed at small business owners, from confession-of-judgment clauses to opaque pricing. Useful for lenders and advisors helping borrowers recognize warning signs.

SBA Office of Advocacy: Small Business Lending in the United States, 2020

2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z

The Office of Advocacy's edition of its long-running report on bank small business lending, covering loan volumes, lender size classes, and market trends. A reference dataset for understanding the structure of the U.S. small business lending market.

SBA: Lender Reports

2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z

The SBA's hub for lender reports, including 7(a) and 504 lending activity data. A primary source for tracking SBA loan volume by program.

Responsible Business Lending Coalition: Small Business Borrowers' Bill of Rights

2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z

A cross-sector standard defining six rights for small business borrowers, including transparent pricing and non-abusive products. Signed by lenders, brokers, and advocacy organizations as a benchmark for responsible lending practices.

Totality: KPI Best Practices for Loan Servicers

2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z

An overview of key performance indicators for loan servicing operations and how to use them to manage portfolio health. Useful for lenders formalizing servicing metrics beyond delinquency rates.