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ClearValue Lending

Annual Data Report · June 2026

The State of Small Business & Consumer Finance 2026

Verified statistics from federal primary sources — SBA, Federal Reserve, FDIC, U.S. Census Bureau, CFPB, and NCUA — aggregated into a single reference on small business financing, consumer credit, banking, and business formation in the United States.

By ClearValue Lending · Data from FY2025 / full-year 2025 sources, with select 2026 figures where available · All sources accessed June 4, 2026

Headline Findings

$44.8B
SBA guaranteed in FY2025
84,400 loans — the most sustained high-volume run in program history
SBA.gov, Sept 30, 2025
36.2M
Small businesses in the U.S.
~46% of private-sector employment; ~9 of every 10 net new jobs
SBA Office of Advocacy, June 2025
42%
of applicants fully approved
60% applied for financing — the highest rate since 2021
Federal Reserve 2026 SBCS
$5.14T
Total consumer credit outstanding
Revolving credit ($1.34T) grew at 9.1% annualized in March 2026
Federal Reserve G.19, April 2026

1. Interest Rate & Monetary Policy Environment

All figures as of June 2, 2026 unless noted. Source: Federal Reserve H.15 (mortgage rows marked * are Freddie Mac PMMS — H.15 does not publish mortgage rates)

Metric Value Period
Federal funds target rate 3.50%–3.75% April 29, 2026 FOMC
Federal funds effective rate 3.62% June 2, 2026
Bank prime loan rate 6.75% June 2, 2026
10-year Treasury yield 4.46% June 2, 2026
30-year Treasury yield 4.97% June 2, 2026
30-year fixed mortgage (national avg)* 6.53% Week of May 28, 2026
15-year fixed mortgage (national avg)* 5.87% Week of May 28, 2026
30-year mortgage — one year prior* 6.89% Week of May 2025

* Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, not Federal Reserve H.15.

2. Small Business Lending — SBA Programs (FY2025)

Source: SBA.gov — FY2025 Annual Press Release (Sept 30, 2025)

Metric FY2025
SBA 7(a) loans approved 77,600
SBA 7(a) total dollar volume $37 billion
SBA 7(a) avg loan size (calculated) ~$477,571
SBA 504 loans approved 6,750
SBA 504 total dollar volume $7.8 billion
Combined 7(a) + 504 loans 84,400 loans / $44.8 billion
SBA startup loans (≤2 years old) 8,900 loans for $5.6 billion
SBA manufacturing loans 3,500+ loans for $2.6 billion
New in 2026: The SBA doubled the cumulative 7(a) + 504 loan limit from $5 million to $10 million, effective July 4, 2026. SBA announcement

3. Small Business Financing Conditions

From the 2026 Report on Employer Firms (2025 SBCS) — Federal Reserve. Survey fielded Sept 3–Nov 14, 2025; 6,525 respondents (firms with 1–499 employees).

Metric 2025 Survey
Applied for any financing (loans, LOC, MCA, credit cards) 60%
Applied for loan, line of credit, or MCA specifically 38%
Received full amount sought 42%
Received partial financing 36%
Received no financing 22%
Full approval rate — small banks 57%
Full approval rate — large banks (2024 SBCS benchmark) 45%
Full approval rate — online lenders (2024 SBCS benchmark) 30%
Used online fintech lenders 29% (up from 17% in 2020)
Online lender borrowers: higher-than-expected costs 60%
Small bank borrowers: higher-than-expected costs ~37%
Large bank borrowers: higher-than-expected costs ~32%
Firms that use financing on a regular basis 86%
Using AI in some capacity ~50%
Sourcing inputs internationally ~50%

4. Consumer Credit & Credit Cards

Metric Value Source
Total outstanding consumer credit $5,140.5B March 2026 · Fed G.19
Revolving credit outstanding $1,337.0B March 2026 · Fed G.19
Nonrevolving credit outstanding $3,803.6B March 2026 · Fed G.19
Revolving credit growth (monthly annualized) 9.1% March 2026 · Fed G.19
Credit card APR — commercial banks (all accounts assessed interest) 21.52% 2025 avg · Fed G.19
Bank classic credit card average rate 15.27% Q4 2025 · NCUA
Credit union classic credit card average rate 12.58% Q4 2025 · NCUA
Total revolving balance (credit cards) >$1 trillion End of 2024 · CFPB 2025 report

5. Banking Industry — FDIC Full-Year 2025

Source: FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile Q4 2025

Metric Value
FDIC-insured institutions 4,336
Industry net income (full year) $295.6 billion (+10.2% YoY)
Return on assets (full year) 1.20%
Community bank net income $29.9 billion (+22.5% YoY)
Community bank ROA 1.32%
Annual loan growth rate 5.9% (fastest in 11 quarters)
Net interest margin (Q4 2025) 3.39% — highest since 2019
Net charge-off rate (Q4 2025) 0.63%
Past-due and nonaccrual (PDNA) loan rate 1.56%
Deposit Insurance Fund balance $153.9 billion (reserve ratio 1.42%)
Problem banks 60 (1.4% of total)
Bank failures (Q4 2025) 0

Savings & Deposit Rates

Product Banks Credit Unions
Regular savings / share 0.38% (FDIC national avg, May 2026) 0.19% (NCUA Q4 2025)
Money market 0.57% (FDIC national avg)
12-month CD 2.29% (NCUA Q4 2025) 2.95% (NCUA Q4 2025)
24-month CD 1.50% (FDIC national avg)
Interest checking 0.07% (FDIC national avg)
Personal loan — 36-month 12.00% (NCUA Q4 2025) 10.64% (NCUA Q4 2025)

6. Business Formation

Metric Value Source
Total U.S. small businesses 36.2 million SBA Advocacy, June 2025
Share of private-sector employment ~46% SBA Advocacy, June 2025
Net new jobs from small businesses ~9 of every 10 March 2023–March 2024 · SBA Advocacy
New establishments opened 1.1 million March 2023–March 2024 · SBA Advocacy
Total business applications (November 2025) 535,041 Census BFS, Nov 2025
Total business applications (December 2025) 497,046 Census BFS, Dec 2025

Key Findings for Media & Research

"The SBA guaranteed $44.8 billion in small business loans across 84,400 approvals in FY2025 — a record sustained run, with three consecutive quarters above $8.5 billion for the first time since the agency began tracking in 1991."

Source: SBA.gov, September 30, 2025

"Only 42% of small business applicants received the full financing amount they sought in 2025 — meaning more than half walked away without their full ask, despite a surge in application rates to the highest level since 2021."

Source: Federal Reserve 2026 SBCS Report on Employer Firms

"The U.S. now has 36.2 million small businesses, nearly 46% of all private-sector employment — and in the latest year of data, small businesses created approximately 9 out of every 10 net new jobs."

Source: SBA Office of Advocacy, June 30, 2025

"60% of online fintech lending borrowers report that actual costs were higher than expected, compared to roughly 32–37% at traditional banks — a transparency gap that has widened as online lender usage jumped from 17% to 29% of all small business applicants over the past five years."

Source: Federal Reserve 2026 SBCS Report on Employer Firms

"Total outstanding consumer credit reached $5.14 trillion in March 2026, with revolving credit (primarily credit cards) growing at a 9.1% annualized monthly rate."

Source: Federal Reserve G.19 Consumer Credit Release, April 2026

"The national average savings account rate is just 0.38% — meaning a household with $50,000 in savings earns $190/year in interest while credit card rates at commercial banks average 21.52% on accounts assessed interest (Federal Reserve G.19, 2025 avg) and bank classic card rates average 15.27% (NCUA Q4 2025)."

Source: FDIC National Rates and Rate Caps, May 2026; NCUA Q4 2025; Federal Reserve G.19

"The 30-year fixed mortgage rate averaged 6.53% the week of May 28, 2026 — down from 6.89% a year earlier, a meaningful improvement in affordability but still roughly double the sub-3.5% rates seen in 2020–2021."

Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey

Ready to Explore SBA Financing?

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Data Notes & Methodology

All figures in this report are sourced from primary federal databases: the U.S. Small Business Administration, Federal Reserve, FDIC, NCUA, U.S. Census Bureau, and CFPB. No figures are fabricated or extrapolated from secondary sources without explicit attribution.

The 9.1% revolving credit growth rate is the March 2026 monthly seasonally adjusted annualized rate from the Federal Reserve G.19, not a quarterly or annual average.

Credit card rate comparisons use two distinct sources and definitions: the Federal Reserve G.19 average (21.52%) covers all commercial bank credit card accounts assessed interest; the NCUA figure (15.27%) covers bank "classic" credit card products at all FDIC-insured institutions. These are not directly comparable and should not be cited interchangeably.

Approval rate benchmarks for large banks and online lenders (45% and 30% respectively) are from the 2024 SBCS / 2025 Report on Employer Firms. The 2025 SBCS survey (2026 report) confirmed the 57% figure for small banks but comparable 2025 figures for large banks and online lenders were not in accessible summary pages at time of publication.

Refresh cadence: Key data points update annually — SBA FY totals each October, SBCS report each March/April, FDIC annual figures in February. This report will be refreshed each June with the latest available data.

Primary Sources

All sources accessed June 4, 2026.

https://clearvaluelending.com/reports/state-of-small-business-finance-2026

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