The time for an SBA loan is now!!

SBA Loan Dollars in FY 2012 Reach Second Largest Total Ever; $30.25 Billion Second Only to FY 2011

WASHINGTON – With loan volume steadily increasing for the past six quarters, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s loan programs posted the second largest dollar volume ever in FY 2012, supporting $30.25 billion in loans to small businesses. That amount was surpassed only by FY 2011, which was heavily boosted by the loan incentives under the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010.

Read Article: http://www.sba.gov/about-sba-services/7367/329571

Some Things You Should Know About Community Banks

• Community banks focus attention on the needs of local families, businesses and farmers. Conversely, many of the nation's megabanks are structured to place a priority on serving large corporations.



• Unlike many larger banks that may take deposits in one state and lend in others, community banks channel most of their loans to the neighborhoods where their depositors live and work, helping to keep local communities vibrant and growing. 



• Community bank officers are generally accessible to their customers on-site. CEOs at megabanks are often headquartered in office suites, away from daily customer dealings.



• Community bank officers are typically deeply involved in local community affairs, while large-bank officers are likely to be detached physically and emotionally from the communities where their branches are located.  



• Many community banks are willing to consider character, family history and discretionary spending in making loans. Megabanks, on the other hand, often apply impersonal qualification criteria, such as credit scoring, to all loan decisions without regard to individual circumstances.



• Community banks offer nimble decision-making on business loans because decisions are made locally. Megabanks must often convene loan-approval committees in another state.



• Because community banks are themselves small businesses, they understand the needs of small-business owners. Their core concern is lending to small businesses and farms. The core concern of the mega banks is corporate America.

Business Owners Turn to Bank Loans, Not Business Cards, for Financing

Small-business owners seeking funding now see bank loans as their first option, not business credit cards, says a June 2012 Pepperdine University study, reversing the findings of the same survey in 2011, when credit cards were seen as the business owners' first choice for loans.

According to the survey, which included responses from 6,000 business owners,  68% of those seeking financing in the next six months said they will pursue a bank loan. Business credit cards were the choice of 40% and 36% said they will look to a credit union or community development fund for a loan.

The study, conducted as part of Pepperdine University's Private Capital Access Index study, also found that of the respondents who were unable to obtain a bank loan, 67% said they thought the bank loan financing was still a good fit for them.

Owners of lower revenue businesses (less than $5 million) were found to be less optimistic about receiving financing from banks than owners of businesses bringing in between $5 million and $100 million.

The preference for bank loans reverses the sentiment business owners expressed in  the same study in December 2011, when only 37% of respondents said they had tried to receive bank loans in the past 12 months. The survey then found 49% of respondents sought to use credit cards.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/07/03/business-owners-turn-to-bank-loans-not-business-cards-for-financing/#ixzz20zPDXQua

Small Banks Approving More Small-Business Loans

Small banks beat out their larger counterparts last month with a bigger jump in approvals for loans to small businesses, according to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index.

A monthly analysis of 1,000 loan applications on Biz2credit.com found that loan approvals in June by banks with less than $10 billion of assets totaled 47.5%, up two percentage points from May and five percentage points from a year earlier.

Approvals by banks with at least $10 billion of assets, rose half a percentage point from May, to 11.1%, Biz2Credit said Tuesday. This also was significantly higher than the 8.9% approval rate recorded in June 2011.

"Small banks are the big story this month," Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit's chief executive, said in a press release. "They have made a lot of SBA 7(a) express loans, which used to be the strength of the largest banks."

The June loan approval rate for credit unions totaled 55.8%, down from 57.6% in May. Some credit unions reported that they had reached their yearly lending limit, which is roughly 12.3% of their total assets, Biz2Credit said.

Approvals from alternate lenders, such as accounts receivables financers, merchant cash advance lenders and mirco lenders, also decreased to 62.9% from a peak of 63.2% in May.

"When traditional lenders, get back into the game, it impacts the alternative funders, such as factoring and merchant cash advance companies, which generally charge higher interest rates than banks do," Arora said. "If banks are lending, small business owners are less likely to look for other options."

Best Bet For A Small Business Loan- Your Community Bank

Banks vary widely in rejection rate for small-business loansA Biz2Credit study found a wide range in large institutions' rejection rate of small-business loan applications. Bank of America's rate is 13.5%, while PNC Bank's is 2.3%. The study suggests importance for small businesses in building a relationship with a community or smaller bank.Big banks are rejecting most small business loan applications.

Small Business Lending on the Rise

To date, banks participating in SBLF have increased lending $4.8 billion over baseline levels — the average lending reported in the four quarters prior to the program's enactment. More than 68% of the program's 332 participants have increased lending by at least 10%, according to Treasury's latest report to Congress released Monday on the use of SBLF funds.

"The loans the participating institutions make mark important progress toward helping to support small businesses and local economies across the nation," Don Graves, Treasury's deputy assistant secretary for small business, community development and housing policy, said in a blog post on the Treasury website Monday.

SBLF participants also increased small business lending by a median of 21.5% over baseline levels, compared to a 1.1% median increase for comparable banks who are not in the program, Graves said.

The program was enacted in September 2010 as part of the Small Business Jobs Act, which allocated $30 billion in capital for eligible community banks, credit unions and community development financial institutions with less than $10 billion in assets.

Liberty Bank of Utah is ready to support small business growth in Utah.  A community bank for over 60 years that has brought many business dreams to reality.