Halfway through the fiscal year, the state’s small businesses are on a pace for $900 million in Small Business Administration-backed loans, the SBA’s New Jersey district office said Tuesday.
Loan approvals are up 33 percent over the first half of fiscal 2017, while dollars loaned are up 23 percent, the SBA added.
District Director Alfred Titone said in a news release that his office has approved 1,149 loans for a total of $456 million during the first half of fiscal 2018, covering Oct. 1, 2017, through March 31. That compares with 862 loans and $373 million during the year-ago period.
“SBA loan approvals and dollars are trending upward, a great indicator that the economy is growing and moving in a positive direction,” Titone said in a prepared statement. “The bottom line is that the SBA is providing more loans and dollars to New Jersey small business owners than we did a year ago.”
Of the loans in the first six months of fiscal 2018, 51 percent went to existing businesses, while 49 percent went to new businesses. Titone said that 49 percent mark was significantly higher than the 32 percent average for small business loans statewide.
“When small businesses in 19 of the 21 counties in the state are seeing more loans than they did last year, then that is good news for New Jersey,” he said. “These loans have helped to create 4,030 jobs and have helped to retain another 4,619 jobs here in New Jersey. From where I sit, those loans have a far-reaching and significant economic impact on the state’s economy.”
Titone noted that five counties showed significant increases in number of loans thus far in fiscal 2018:
- Hunterdon County, up 128 percent;
- Warren County, up 88 percent;
- Camden County, up 82 percent;
- Mercer County, up 79 percent;
- Ocean County, up 70 percent.
The Top 5 SBA lenders for the time period were:
- TD Bank, 421 loans for $41 million;
- Wells Fargo, 44 loans for $21 million;
- M&T Bank, 44 loans for $8.4 million;
- JPMorgan Chase, 44 loans for $7.4 million;
- Santander Bank, 36 loans for $4.5 million.
Total loans by county were:
- Atlantic County, 23 loans for $10.75 million;
- Bergen County, 181 loans for $48.32 million;
- Burlington County, 53 loans for $20.28 million;
- Camden County, 84 loans for $31.21 million;
- Cape May County, 33 loans for $31.64 million;
- Cumberland County, 6 loans for $1.12 million;
- Essex County, 79 loans for $36.54 million;
- Gloucester County, 30 loans for $9.04 million;
- Hudson County, 62 loans for $22.38 million;
- Hunterdon County, 16 loans for $3.86 million;
- Mercer County, 59 loans for $14.64 million;
- Middlesex County, 84 loans for $54.12 million;
- Monmouth County, 99 loans for $45.69 million;
- Morris County, 79 loans for $33.44 million;
- Ocean County, 78 loans for $28.02 million;
- Passaic County, 61 loans for $22.33 million;
- Salem County, 3 loans for $165,000;
- Somerset County, 38 loans for $6.63 million;
- Sussex County, 8 loans for $4.21 million;
- Union County, 58 loans for $25.34 million;
- Warren County, 15 loans for $6.54 million.
Only Atlantic County saw a lower number of loans from the year-ago period, while Cumberland County had the same total. (Dollar values varied widely year to year.)
