Biz2Credit announced on Tuesday its latest Small Business Lending Index reported small business loan approval percentages at big banks ($10 billion+ in assets) dipped slightly to 13.4% in April from 13.5% in March 2021. The Index also revealed that small banks’ approvals have dropped to 18.2% in April, down one-tenth of a percent from 18.3% in March 2021.
Other findings in the Index included credit unions have also dipped to a 20.3% approval rate in April, down a notch from 20.4% in March 2021. However, other non-bank lenders inched up slightly. Institutional lenders approved 23.5% of funding requests in April, up from 23.3% in March, while alternative lenders approved 24.0% of applications in April, compared to 23.9% a month prior.
While sharing more details about the index’s information, Biz2Credit CEO, Rohit Arora, stated:
“Traditional small business loans are hard to obtain at the moment, much more so than they were before the pandemic. Banks have been flooded with applications for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans since the program entered its second round.
Arora then revealed that institutional lenders and alternative lenders saw slight increases in approval rates, but this is still far from where lending was before the COVID-19 pandemic happened.
“Hopefully, as the infection rates decline and the economy shows signs of recovery, small business loan approvals should begin a steadier upward trend for all categories of lenders.”
Biz2Credit added it has analyzed loan requests from companies in business for more than two years with credit scores above 680. The results are based on primary data submitted by more than 1,000 small business owners who applied for funding on the lending platform.