The SBA and banks

The FDIC released the Q2 Quarterly Banking Profile last week.

The number of FDIC-insured institutions reporting financial results fell by 104 in the second quarter, from 7,934 to 7,830. This is the first time in almost ten years that the number of reporting institutions has fallen by more than 100 in a single quarter (the number declined by 113 in third quarter 2000).

While there may be fewer and fewer lenders out there, more and more of the remaining ones are SBA 7(a) lenders.

Since the passage of the Recovery Act, more than 1,200 lenders who had not made loans since October 2008 returned to SBA lending. In fact, of those lenders more than half had not made SBA loans since 2007.

The SBA hopes to increase the number of active SBA lending partners for the 7(a) loan program to 3,000 by September 30, 2011.