SBA Loans Increase Slightly in 2018

SBA total loan volume exceeded $30 billion with more than 72,000 approved loans for FY18 (October 1, 2017 through September 30, 2018), according to the SBA. The total volume is about the same as last year and there were approximately 4,000 more SBA loans issued this year compared to FY17.

Of the 72,000 SBA loans approved this year, 60,353 of them were 7(a) loans, totaling $25.37 billion. And 5,874 of the loans were 504 loans, totaling over $4.75 billion. This year, the SBA launched the 25-year Debenture, which offers an additional 60 months of financing at a fixed rate for small businesses. Since its introduction in April, over 1,000 debentures had been sold in FY18.

“The 25-year Debenture is designed to help free up cash flow and offer fixed rates in a rising interest rate environment for 504 borrowers and we are pleased to see over $1 billion has been disbursed in less than six months,” Associate Administrator for SBA’s Office of Capital Access William Manger said.

In FY18, there was notable growth in the SBA’s Microloan and Community Advantage Programs. In particular, over 5,000 loans were approved for over $72 million in the Microloan program and over 1,000 loans were approved for over $150 million in the SBA Community Advantage program.