The Small Business Administration's flagship 7(a) program guaranteed $3.56 billion of loans - 23,197 of them - in the first quarter of the government's 2005 fiscal year.
The dollar volume was 14% larger than a year earlier, and the number of loans was up 23%, the agency said Friday. The program set records in the 2004 fiscal year with 74,825 loans for $12.5 billion.
"The heavy demand for SBA backing for guaranteed loans is gratifying," SBA Administrator Hector V. Barreto said in a press release. "This tells me American entrepreneurs are moving with confidence."
This is the first fiscal year in which the SBA is operating without a congressionally appropriated subsidy to cover loan losses. Legislation that President Bush signed last month made 7(a), the agency's largest lending program, completely self-supporting; higher fees took the place of tax dollars.
Ending the credit subsidy was a major goal of Mr. Barreto's, but congressional Democrats are vowing to reverse the policy.
