Federally backed small business lending surged to a record in El Paso County, statewide and nationwide as pandemic-relief programs expired, according to data released this week by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

The agency guaranteed 166 loans totaling $120.6 million under its two primary programs in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, breaking the previous record of $101.7 million set in 2017 by nearly $19 million. The amount borrowed jumped 42.4% from the 151 loans totaling $84.7 million in the previous year, which was up less than 1% from 2019.

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In its largest program, the federal agency guarantees a portion of loans made by banks and other lenders that help small firms pay the majority of their expenses, including short- and longer-term working capital exports and debt refinancing. Another SBA program backs long-term financing for real estate and equipment purchases.

“As most of the agency’s pandemic relief programs like the Paycheck Protection Program, Restaurant Revitalization Fund, COVID EIDL (Economic Injury Disaster Loans) and Shuttered Venue Operators Grant expired, we saw a jump in demand for our traditional lending programs across Colorado,” said Frances Padilla, director of the SBA’s Colorado district office in Denver.

Small business lending in Colorado up in fiscal year ended Sept. 30

Many borrowers in Colorado and across the nation took out loans in the agency’s traditional programs during the past fiscal year to take advantage of pandemic relief-related incentives that expired Sept. 30, she said. Those incentives included federally subsidized payments on loans for borrowers, fee waivers and higher federal guarantees for lenders.

Statewide, the agency made nearly 2,000 loans totaling a record $1.39 billion, up more than 60% from the previous year. The agency made 1,450 loans for $1.15 billion under its largest program, 303 loans totaling $238.6 million in the real estate and equipment lending program and 212 “microloans” (small loans of less than $50,000 each) that totaled $3.33 million. In the Denver area, the SBA made 1,019 loans totaling $807.5 million in its two largest loan guarantee programs.

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Just over half of the lending totals in Colorado went to white, non-Hispanic borrowers and 21% went to minority borrowers. The ethnicity of the remaining borrowers was not available because the borrowers did not provide such information, the agency said. Businesses in which women own at least 51% of the company received 16% of the amount borrowed, the SBA said.

Colorado Lending Source was the top lender both statewide and in El Paso County, making 230 loans totaling $184.6 million in Colorado and 26 loans totaling $15.6 million in El Paso County. FirstBank was the top lender statewide in the SBA’s largest program with 38 loans to $32.7 million, while Live Oak Banking was the top lender in the same program in El Paso County with eight loans for $15.3 million.

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Nationwide, the SBA backed 66,000 loans totaling a record $44.8 billion in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, up 60% from the previous year. That total included nearly 52,000 loans totaling $36.5 billion under the broad lending program for most business expenses and another 9,600 loans totaling $8.2 billion for real estate and equipment financing. The agency also backed 4,400 microloans totaling $72.8 million.

The SBA doled out more than $1.1 trillion nationwide and nearly $21 billion in Colorado under several pandemic-relief programs for businesses and nonprofits, most of which expired in May and June. The agency’s COVID Economic Injury Disaster Loan program ends Dec. 31.

Small business lending sets record in El Paso County, state