CREC and Treasury Release Report on SSBCI Program
February 14, 2014In late January, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released a report on the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI). Prepared by the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC), “Filling the Small Business Lending Gap: Lessons from the U.S. Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative,” identifies lessons learned for state small business financing and offers recommendations to further improve program performance.
The SSBCI program was a component of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, to address the capital crisis facing many small businesses following the financial crisis in the banking industry. The program provides flexibility to states in the implementation of four common ways to leverage private lending (loan participation, loan guarantee, collateral support and capital access) and complements pre-existing state lending programs.
On February 11, CREC and Treasury presented the report’s findings on a webinar with national and state stakeholders. Some of those findings:
- The average size of SSBCI loans was about $319,000 and two thirds of the loans were below $100,000.
- Small companies with fewer than 50 employees received 96 percent of SSBCI loans.
- Companies five years old or younger received half the SSBCI dollar loan value.
- Companies in low- and moderate-income areas received 42 percent of the SSBCI loans.
- SSBCI loans helped create or retain more than 48,000 jobs; nearly 60 percent of those jobs were created by programs managed by state agencies.
View the February 11th webinar | Download powerpoint slides from the February 11th call
Download the original report, “Filling the Small Business Lending Gap: Lessons from the U.S. Treasury’s State Small Business Credit Initiative”