The lending freeze didn? spare local small business loans.
For the six months through March, the amount of loans made by the top 20 Small Business Administration lenders in the county was down 29% from a year earlier to $75 million, according to the SBA.
That drop doesn? take into account a stronger April, according to J. Adalberto Quijada, director of the government? Small Business Administration? Santa Ana office.
?he numbers are starting to look good again,?he said.
Through March, the number of loans made by the top 20 lenders was cut in half to 140.
Many of the lenders report making bigger loans while doing fewer loans, as many healthy companies have been taking advantage of the down economy by buy-ing large distressed assets such as buildings.
While 12 lenders reported a drop in the number of SBA loans they made, only nine reported a decline in the amount of money given out. Nine reported an increase in dollar amount and two didn? have data available for last year.
For April, the amount of loans made through the SBA? Santa Ana office, which oversees the organization? largest geographical area and includes San Bernardino and Riverside counties, was up more than 28% from a year earlier to about $35 million, according to Quijada. (The list reflects SBA loans in Orange County only.)
For the same month, the total number of loans made through the office was up more than 25% from a year earlier to 88.
?t? a snowball effect from Obama? plan,?Quijada said.
As part of the government? economic stimulus plan, the SBA has increased its guarantee to as much as 90% of loans from its previous 75% cap, which means less risk for banks.
It? also made it easier on the borrower by cutting a 3% origination fee to nothing.
Local banks make the loans with the government serving as guarantor. The loans may be sold in a secondary market as bonds.
SBA loans can range from $5,000 to $10 million for equipment, startups or real estate.
The SBA? real estate loans typically are funded with a bank lending the first half of the value, a nonprofit certified development company lending 40% and the borrower putting down as little as 10%.
The government does not guarantee the banks?initial loan for real estate, and these loans are excluded from the Business Journal? list of top local SBA lenders.
Additionally, the SBA has been actively recruiting lenders such as credit unions, according to Quijada.
?e are starting to see small lenders that have traditionally not been SBA coming on board,?he said.
The county? largest SBA lender, San Diego-based CDC Small Business Finance Corp., which only does secondary commercial real estate loans, did about half the business it did the same period a year ago with $13.6 million in loans made.
The number of loans made by the company?hich has an office in Anaheim?lso was cut in half to 20, as its business trends with the struggling real estate market.
?eople have been on the sidelines to see if real estate continues to decline,?said Bob Gonzales, senior vice president and sales manager.
Like many commercial real estate lenders, CDC has begun to suffer with an increase in bad loans that it made.
?e?e hoping things are bottoming out now,?Gonzales said.
No. 2 San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. increased the amount of loans it did by 49% compared to a year earlier to $10 million, in large part because of its buyout of Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Corp. and its 12 branches in the county.
Wachovia didn? have a large sales force. But Wells says it will be expanding on it with its new branches.
Wells Fargo increased its loan amount even as it made 25 fewer loans, reflecting the trend of larger deal sizes for a more selective group of companies.
?uyers that are still in the market took advantage of it by buying distressed companies or buildings,?said Steve Doss, a regional sales manager for the company.
No. 3 Temecula Valley Bank did $7.9 million in loans for the six months through March, a 131% gain from a year ago.
The gain was due to a few large deals?he number of loans it made was five, up from three a year earlier.
In February, the bank, with $1.5 billion in assets, was given a cease and desist order from regulators to boost capital levels and reduce problem loans.
No. 4 EDF Resource Capital Inc.? lending was cut in half compared to a year earlier to $7.7 million from 12 loans.
No. 5 Southland Economic Development Corp. lent nearly $6 million in eight loans, down about 70%.
No. 6 U.S. Bancorp saw a big jump in loan amounts after it bought PFF Bank & Trust of Pomona.
It had $5 million in loans, up 58% from a year earlier.
The number of loans it made came in at 14, which was about half of what it did a year ago.
New hires allowed it to nearly double the number of business bankers doing SBA loans locally to 15.
The bank expects to expand its SBA lending further after it introduces it to the 34 local branches it acquired with its purchase of Downey Savings and Loan, part of Newport Beach-based Downey Financial Corp., which filed for bankruptcy in November.
The integration of the two should start this month.
Part of U.S. Bank? strategy will be to tap into Downey? loan and deposit account holders to expand its business lending, according to Matt Ashworth, a regional manager in its Newport Beach office.
New York? JPMorgan Chase & Co. also has plans to ramp up SBA lending through 60 local branches it acquired through its purchase of Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc.
WaMu, which was a savings and loan by charter, previously only did SBA Express loans for less than $5 million.
By the end of the month, it will offer all types of SBA loans under the commercial bank charter of Chase, according to the company.
