October 13, 2026

Bob Coleman
Founder & Publisher

SBA Hot Topic Tuesday: Coleman Report FY 2026 SBA 7(a) Rankings

SBA Hot Topic Tuesday: Coleman Report FY 2026 SBA 7(a) Rankings

Bank of Hope, US Metro Break Into Top 10 as 7(a) Volume Falls 13%; Live Oak Bank, Newtek Bank Top the List

Five of the nation’s 10 largest SBA 7(a) lenders increased approval dollars in FY2026. Five declined.

The split came as overall SBA 7(a) approval dollars fell 13% to $32.43 billion and loan count dropped 28.1% to 56,130.

Live Oak Banking Company remained the nation’s largest SBA 7(a) lender for the ninth consecutive year with $2.58 billion in approvals. Dollar volume declined 9.4%, while loan count increased 5.7% to 2,411.

Newtek Bank moved from third to second with $1.38 billion despite a 32% decline in approval dollars. Huntington National Bank fell from second to third as its approval dollars declined 44.6%.

The biggest gains inside the top 10 came from Bank of Hope and US Metro Bank.

Bank of Hope jumped from 20th to sixth after increasing approval dollars 91.3% to $585.6 million.

US Metro moved from 25th to 10th as approval dollars increased 90.8% to $528.3 million. Its loan count more than doubled.

Pathward came within $10.2 million of the top 10, moving from 27th to 11th with $518.1 million in approvals, up 98.8%.

Three FY2025 top-10 lenders fell out of the group.

• Readycap Lending fell from fifth to 15th as approval dollars declined 61.4%.
• JPMorgan Chase fell from ninth to 28th after approval dollars fell 56.6%.
• First Internet Bank of Indiana fell from seventh to 19th after approval dollars declined 51.7%.

Among lenders ranked in the top 500 in FY2025, Primis Bank posted the largest increase, up 464.4% to $62.1 million. Cross River Bank increased 353.3% to $61.2 million. Bankwell Bank increased 209.1% to $181.2 million, and SmartBiz Bank increased 175.4% to $196.7 million.

The FY2026 rankings show a much wider range of performance than the 13% national decline. Some lenders nearly doubled SBA production. Others lost more than half.

Coleman Report Premium members receive the complete FY2026 SBA 7(a) lender rankings report and the underlying Excel spreadsheet covering every SBA lender.

The spreadsheet includes every lender’s FY2026 approval dollars, number of loans, average loan size, year-over-year changes, and current and prior-year rankings. Lenders can sort the file to compare competitors, identify the fastest-growing SBA lenders, track rank changes and measure their own production against the market.