Local small-business loans nosedive

October 13th, 2008, 3:00 am · 1 Comment · posted by Jan Norman, small-business columnist

The number and amounts of government-guaranteed loans to local small businesses dropped dramatically in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, reports the Santa Ana District office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

In all, the 2,172 loans made were down 35% from a year earlier and the dollars, $708.4 million were off 20% in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties that compose the Santa Ana district.

Here are the top 10 lenders to small businesses in this area:

While 139 lenders participate in the SBA guaranteed loan programs in the three-county area, only 42 make more than 10 loans a year through the SBA. These statistics don’t cover other small-business lending, such as through credit cards.

Still, the results probably reflect a combination of banks curtailing their loans to small businesses — in some cases dramatically — and the business owners reducing their borrowing.

Here are some year-to-year changes of note:

Bank of America cut its SBA lending 72%, both in number of loans and dollars
Citibank lopped off lending 85%
Capital One cut its loans by 64%
Washington Mutual, recently taken over by JP Morgan Chase, dropped its number of loans 49%
Innovative Bank, which makes smaller loans (average $23,300), increased its participation, moving from 9th to 2nd in number of loans made to local businesses
While Banco Popular reduced its number of loans by 45%, it made larger loans so that its total dollars lent increased 23%.

OTHER SMALL BUSINESS STORIES: