SBA Lending Activity Down From Previous Years

(To view the Business Journal’s annual list of largest SBA lenders, click here.)

Lenders and the U.S. Small Business Administration made 303 unique 7(a) loans in Arkansas during its fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 30.

The SBA deals with two types of loans: 504 loans that are long-term fixed-rate financing mechanisms for major fixed assets such as land and buildings, and 7(a) loans are provided by third-party lenders with an SBA guaranty on portions of the loan. The value reported on 7(a) loans are the gross loan amount and not just the SBA-backed value.

Seventy-five of the 303 loans were made in the six-counties that make up Northwest Arkansas (Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Madison, Sebastian and Washington), with a high number of those being made in Fayetteville and Rogers.

In all, the total value of 7(a) loans made in the state was $72.73 million. The 75 loans made in Northwest Arkansas were valued at $21.14 million, or about 29 percent of the statewide total.

The last time a geographic breakdown was available from the SBA was for fiscal 2003. At that time, there were 119 loans made in Northwest Arkansas valued at about $30 million.

To be fair to all lenders inside and outside the state, the list is limited to lenders who had offices in the six-county area during the SBA’s fiscal year 2008. All lenders who met that criteria and made at least one loan were included.

The totals on the list indicate 17 lenders that made 156 loans worth $30.08 million, but not all of those loans were made in Northwest Arkansas and that’s why the geographic data from the SBA is important for comparisons.

Little Rock-based Metropolitan National Bank topped the list for the second year in a row and Arvest Bank ascended the list to the No. 2 slot with 29 total 7(a) loans made, from a previous No. 3 showing. Arkansas Capital Corp. of Little Rock came in at No. 3 with 25 statewide loans made.

Notable is the absence of ANB Financial NA, which was one of the top SBA lenders just a few years ago. The bank, which was closed by federal regulators on May 9, was the No. 5 SBA lender in fiscal 2007 with a total of 17 loans made that year.