Herbert Austin, District Director for the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)’s Dallas / Fort Worth (DFW) District Office announced today that fiscal year 2017 lending in the district’s 72 counties reached over $1.187 billion to 2062 small businesses.

“This is another major milestone for the DFW district” said Austin. “For the third year in a row our district has reached over the billion dollar mark in financing to small businesses. The value of loan guarantees outstripped last year’s figures by 4.5%.”

A total of 154 lenders and 12 Certified Development Companies (CDCs) contributed to the above outcome, with 30% of them being newly-active lending institutions. “Wells Fargo again was the top lender in dollars ending the year with a record of $102 million. This volume has never been achieved by any other bank in the district” stated Austin. Greater Texas Capital held on to #1 in the 504 category with $55 million in lending.

The top five 7A lenders in the DFW district are:

–WELLS FARGO BANK NATL ASSOC: $102,174,200 with 254 loans

–LIVE OAK BANKING COMPANY: $62,413,500 with 46 loans

–COMPASS BANK: $53,415,800 with 350 loans

–JPMORGAN CHASE BANK NATL ASSOC: $50,206,200 with 172 loans

–VERITEX COMMUNITY BANK: $45,943,500 with 40 loans

“The DFW district’s FY 17 loans help to create 9,759 jobs in industries such as retail, hotels and motels, restaurants, and construction. Additionally, these loans funded 316 franchise businesses and 888 new businesses” said Ahmad Goree, SBA’s DFW District Public Information Officer.

“Freestone County small businesses specifically had a major year in SBA financing. In FY17, the county received over $6.8 million to five firms. This is up from FY16 and FY15 when no loans were made in the entire county. Fuel Maxx in Fairfield and Toby Farm in Teague were among the businesses that received SBA financing in Freestone County last fiscal year” stated Goree.

Among the SBA’s 68 district offices nationally, the DFW district ranks # 5 in dollar value of loans, after Los Angeles, Georgia, South Florida and Santa Ana, and ranks # 8 in units of loans after New York, Los Angeles, South Florida, Michigan, New Jersey and Illinois. Three other offices, namely San Francisco, Illinois and New York, have joined the club as achievers of $1.0 billion in lending.

Nationally, SBA approved more than 68,000 loans in the 7(a) and 504 loan programs in FY17 worth over $30 billion to small businesses.

SBA’s flagship loan program called the 7A Loan Program, provides small businesses with comprehensive financial assistance covering the vast majority of small business needs including working capital, fixed and intangible asset financing, as well as refinance and export support through term and revolving loans.

The 504 Loan Program provide small businesses with long-term fixed rate financing to acquire fixed assets for expansion or modernization. Grow loans are available through Certified Development Companies (CDCs), SBA’s community-based partners.

In addition, to SBA lending partners the DFW district office works closely with SBA resource partners SCORE mentors, Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and the Veterans Assistance Center (VBOC) to provide counseling to small businesses at no cost.

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 and since January 13, 2012, has served as a Cabinet-level agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation.

The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, the SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. To learn more about SBA, visit www.sba.gov.