Report: Not Much Change in So-Called Micro Business Lending
Mar 24th, 2008 | By Dawn R. Rivers | Category: ResearchThe rate of growth in small business lending in 2006 was modest, which is only to be expected in what (in hindsight) can be called a sluggish economy. And, when compared with the previous year, there was a bit of a flip in the numbers between small and micro business lending. Those were the principle findings in the SBA Office of Advocacy’s annual report on institutional lending to small businesses, released last month. Micro business lending, defined in this report as loans under $100,000, declined slightly in loan volume and increased by 5.5% in loan dollars, while small business loans, defined as loans between $100,000 and $1 million, increased by a sturdy 12.9% in volume and by 5.5% in dollars. Of course, this is an incomplete picture of microbusiness lending, given how many ways microbusinesses finance their firms with either consumer credit products or non-institutional lending. And it certainly doesn’t illustrate the degree to which microbusiness owners’ capital needs remain unmet.
