Report: Arvest Bank most popular PPP lender in Arkansas

While many financial institutions distributed Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, some lenders originated more loans on the national and local level. Bank of America, for example, accounted for roughly 7% of the 4.8 million PPP loans in the U.S., more than any other lender nationwide.

In a new study, financial technology company SmartAsset analyzed data from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to identify the most popular PPP loan lender in each state. The company then ranked states by the percentage of PPP loans that were originated by the most popular lender.

Arkansas cracked the top 10 states. Arvest Bank, its most popular lender, accounts for 15.44% of the state’s total PPP loans. The percentage is figured by the number of PPP loans originated between April 3 and June 30 by the most popular PPP loan lender in the state divided by the number of PPP loans originated by all lenders in the state.

About 91% of Arvest Bank’s 6,553 PPP loans were for amounts of less than $150,000, according to the study.

Following Arvest, the top 10 PPP lenders in Arkansas, according to SmartAsset, are:

• Simmons Bank, 2,938 loans (6.92%)
• First Security Bank, 2,898 loans (6.83%)
• Centennial Bank, 2,622 loans (6.18%)
• Bank OZK, 1,422 loans (3.35%)
• Regions Bank, 1,038 loans (2.82%)
• BancorpSouth Bank, 1,139 loans (2.68%)
• Southern Bancorp Bank, 971 loans (2.29%)
• First National Bank, 944 loans (2.22%)
• IberiaBank, 933 loans (2.20%)

Other key findings are:

• One credit union made the bank-dominated list. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which included the PPP, allowed a wide range of lenders – including traditional SBA lenders, banks, credit unions and fintech lenders – to make the loans. Despite this range of possibilities, the most popular PPP lender in 49 of the 50 states was, perhaps expectedly, a bank. Idaho is the only state where a credit union – specifically, Idaho Central Credit Union – was the most popular PPP loan lender.
• A single lender originated more than a fourth of loans in three states. Central Pacific Bank in Hawaii, Glacier Bank in Montana and Citizens Bank in Rhode Island originated more than 25% of PPP loans to small businesses in their respective states.
• There was a variety of the most popular PPP loan lenders across all 50 states. There are 33 unique most popular lenders in our study. Only seven lenders were the most popular in two or more states. They are JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Citizens Bank, TD Bank, People’s United Bank and Truist Bank. JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America were both the most popular PPP loan lender in six states.