On January 26th the U.S. Small Business Association held their Annual Lender Awards Ceremony, celebrating “the valuable partnership with all of our lenders”, stated SBA New Jersey District Director Al Titone. This relationship provides “small business owners and entrepreneurs easier access to capital.” In addition to recognizing the top small business lenders, keynote Speaker David Fieldhouse of Moody’s Analytics addressed current economic conditions that included future trends for small businesses in NJ.
Securing the prestigious Diamond Award for approving the greatest number of SBA loans in NJ was TD Bank. For fiscal year 2016, TD bank approved 226 loans, with 208 being of $350,000 or less, totaling $17 million, earning them the title of #1 Small Loan Lender in New Jersey.
SBA further awarded 3 Gold Awards to lenders who approved over 101 loans for FY 2016. These lenders provided a total of 426 loans for a grand sum of $64.5 million. Four Silver Awards were given to lenders who approved 55-100 loans. These lenders provided a total of 304 loans, coming in total to $74 million. Seven Bronze Awards were given to lenders who approved 35-54 loans. These lenders provided 277 loans totaling $169 million. Further awards were presented to lenders in various categories, celebrating the diverse amount of ways they have had a “far-reaching impact on our community” as Titone described.
For the year, SBA NJ approved $805 million in loans to 1,754 state small business owners. 63% of those loans were provided to existing business whereas 36.7% went to various startup companies. With the aid of this lending program, 7,177 jobs were created with another 9,240 jobs retained all throughout NJ.
2017 already shows great promise as for the first quarter, 421 loans were approved for $187 million. This amount reflects a 6.3% increase in loan approvals and a 4.3% increase in dollars over 2016 loan activity for the same quarter. This growth was addressed by Keynote Speaker David Fieldhouse, who noted that the acceleration in wages, increase in employment, and success of the housing market were the key contributors to overall economic growth. However for NJ, Fieldhouse stated that New Jersey “will not benefit from the rosy economic conditions in the same way as there continues to be a couple of drags in the state economy, as well as slow growth in utility, transportation, and financial services.”
Fieldhouse explained how demographic factors such as a smaller portion of the population being young as well as a larger amount of them being in debt, has had a dampening effect on small business creation. However Moody’s Analytics which was “cautiously optimistic” about the financial sector serving small business now looks at in a brighter light. He anticipates higher demand for credit and less regulation due to the current political environment that will lead to greater small business lending and small business creation.
