Small businesses continued turning to the U.S. Small Business Administration for commercial credit in record numbers through the first three quarters of fiscal 2005, the SBA announced this past week.
Small businesses secured SBA backing under the agency’s flagship 7(a) program for 71,131 loans through the first nine months of the fiscal year, a 21 percent increase over the same period a year ago and a 49 percent increase over the same period two years ago.
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The loans made so far this year amount to $11.1 billion, 19.5 percent more than in the same period last year, and on a pace for a record-setting year for the program.
“We had a record year for this loan program a year ago, and we’re going to set another record in 2005,” said SBA Administrator Hector V. Barreto.
The gains are also reflected in the SBA’s Certified Development Company, or 504, loan program. Through the first nine months of the fiscal year, the 504 program had issued 6,434 loans worth $3.44 billion, more than 6 percent ahead of the same period a year ago, when the program had produced 6,058 loans for $2.88 billion.
The budget for the current year makes more than $21 billion available to small businesses through the two loan programs, including $16 billion in small-business lending under the 7(a) program and $5 billion under the 504 program.
