The federal banking agencies today issued aggregate data on 2015 small-business, small-farm and community development loans that institutions reported under the Community Reinvestment Act. The data, which commercial banks and savings institutions with about $1.2 billion or more in assets are required to report and others can report voluntarily, show that such institutions made about 6.1 million small-business loans, totaling $228 billion, and about 176,000 farm loans, totaling more than $13.5 billion.
The number of small-business loans rose 8.5 percent from 2014, and the dollar amount of small business loan originations rose by 5.6 percent. The number of small-farm loans rose by about 2 percent and the dollar amount increased by 5 percent.
Measured by number of loan originations, 93 percent of the small-business loans and 77 percent of the small-farm loans were for amounts less than $100,000, according to the analysis. It also said nearly 52 percent of the small-business loans and 61 percent of the small-farm loans were extended to firms with revenues of $1 million or less.
