SBA DATA SOURCE AND METHODOLOGY

Data Source
The original source of SBA loan data is derived from data released by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBA collects individual loan data from the SBA lender/bank approving and providing SBA loans. The SBA then makes basic loan data public through the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requirements. The SBA FOIA data is imported into the SBADNA advanced analytics platform which is then used to generate the reports and rankings on SBAmatch.com.

SBA 7(a) Program
All SBA lending data on this site is based on the SBA’s flagship 7(a) program and does not include loan data for the 504 Program, or PPP loan disbursements or recipients.

Data Integrity
As with most big datasets, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) reported data is imperfect, relying on a bank representative to input the data, on the SBADNA analytics platform to calculate the data accurately, and on SBAmatch to post the correct data to the right pages and categories. Sometimes data points will have an erroneous entry or placement and the percentage of erroneous data vary by lender. Different lenders take different levels of care in the accuracy of the data provided to the SBA. Older data is less reliable than recent data.

Loan Status
Loan Approvals and approval amounts reported include all loan statuses. If a loan was approved but then cancelled, we still include these counts unless otherwise noted. When a loan approval is cancelled it is usually due to the borrower not moving forward with the loan (for a multitude of reasons) and not because of the lender’s unwillingness to fund a loan that has been approved. Lenders do frequently update their information on loan status but updated data isn’t available to us until the following quarterly SBA data release(s).

Forecast Model
Forecasting is used to make predictions for specific future time periods. Our forecast model is far from a crystal ball, it’s just an AI-powered best guess. For lenders and franchises with fewer than 10 years of data, or when the loan data category has minimal or erratic data, the forecast quality suffers. Our forecast model is based on Holt-Winters Forecasting model a.k.a. Triple Exponential Smoothing. The forecast is calculated as a weighted average of all historical data. Recent data is weighted exponentially higher than older data. The Holt-Winters method is based on either additive or multiplicative components. The AI-powered platform internally calculates results by both algorithms and shows the best results of the two.

Why our data may vary from other sources
Based on “apples to apples” comparisons all sources will be very close to each other. Usually when there is a discrepancy it is because of:

  • Time Frame. SBA bases annual numbers on the SBA fiscal year which ends September 30th. We report for fiscal year, calendar year, trailing 12 months, quarterly, and also generate reports for last 5 years, 10 years, 20 years and all-time.

  • Duplicates. Other sources may not be accounting for duplicate data that has been merged or purged from our database. We have merged tens of thousands of duplicate loans, franchise brands, and cities, and continue with duplicate purging efforts. When a bank purchases another bank we merge the two bank names into one.

  • Approved vs. Disbursed. Other sources only use loan “approvals” as their measuring stick. A loan approved does not always equate into a loan disbursed. While approvals are the general variable we use, we often report on actual disbursements (funded loans) as well. Disbursed amounts will always be lower than approved amounts.

  • Cancelled Loans. If a loan was approved but then cancelled, we still include these counts unless otherwise noted.

  • Franchise Insiders. Franchisors and franchise based associations and analytics firms have additional data they may report on specific franchise brands, distributors, and sub-franchisees that may not be able to be captured through SBA data analytics alone.

No Warranty of Data Accuracy or Completeness
SBAmatch and SBADNA does not validate or verify the data released by the SBA because it would be impossible to do so. While extreme efforts have been made to provide accurate data we access, we do not make any representation as to the completeness or accuracy of the SBA loan data reported on this website. In fact, due to the current structure and process of how SBA data is collected, managed, and shared by the SBA we can guarantee not all counts will be 100% accurate.