PROVIDENCE – Citizens Bank of Rhode Island is the region’s top small-business lender, issuing 135 loans statewide in the fiscal year to date, or 30 percent of the total, according to a report today by the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Rhode Island District Office.
The bank’s SBA loans in the first 10 months of fiscal 2007 (October 2006 through July 2007) – all issued under the agency’s basic 7(a) loan program – together were worth $4.30 million. Such 7(a) loans accounted for 424 of the 462 SBA loans approved in Rhode Island in the period, and $41.4 million of the state’s $57.2 million total value.
The Washington Trust Co., which also participated in the agency’s 504 community development corporation(CDC) loan program, was No. 2 in the number of SBA loans issued but No. 1 in total value. It issued 74 SBA loans worth $12.6 million, including 70 SBA 7(a) loans worth $9.77 million.
No. 3 in the number of 7(a) loans issued was Bank Rhode Island, with 41 loans worth $3.425 million. Filling out the top five were Bank of America, with 35 loans worth $840,000; and Coastway Credit Union, fifth in number but second in value, with 33 7(a) loans worth $6.96 million.
Coastway was the top participating lender in the 504 program in the 10-month period, with seven loans totaling $2.86 million. Counting its 7(a) lending, the credit union handled 40 SBA loans worth $9.82 million.
Among 504 lenders, it was followed by Webster Bank, with five loans worth $3.291 million; Bank Rhode Island, with four loans worth $2.52 million; Washington Trust, with four loans worth $2.20 million; and BankNewport, with two loans worth $1.68 million.
Statewide, the period saw 35 such 504 loans, for a total of $15.8 million.
Most were through the Ocean State Business Development Authority – one of five SBA-certified development companies doing business in Rhode Island – which was responsible for 25 loans worth $10.6 million. It was followed by the South Eastern Economic Development Corporation and Rhode Island Community Investment Corporation, with three each; and the Bay Colony and N.E. Certified development corporations, with two each.
The period also saw three SBA microloans, totaling $74,000, that were made through the R.I. Coalition for Minority Investment.
For additional information, including the full fiscal-year-to-date rankings of U.S. Small Business Administration lenders in Rhode Island, see the August edition of the SBA Communicator at www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/ri_providence/ri_communicator01_07.pdf. Besides its basic 7(a) SBA loans, its 504 CDC loans and SBA microloans, the agency’s small-business lending also includes disaster-assistance loans. To learn more about small-business loans and other SBA programs, visit www.sba.gov.
