Springfield-based Great Southern Bancorp Inc. led Missouri banking institutions receiving capital funding through the federal Small Business Lending Fund, increasing lending – for the seventh consecutive quarter – by 49.5 percent over baseline.
According to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Use of Funds quarterly report in April, eight Missouri banks participated in the program as of March 15. Of those, seven increased lending over its baseline by more than $208.6 million.
Nationwide, 320 SBLF participants increased lending by $8.9 billion, through 38,000 small-business loans, according to a news release. The report also shows that SBLF participants increased their lending by $1.5 billion more than the prior quarter, representing the second-highest increase since the start of the program and a 38 percent increase overall.
Established in the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, the baseline for measuring the change in small-business lending is the average of the amounts reported for each of the four calendar quarters ending June 30, 2010.
Great Southern's loans through the program totaled $99.5 million. Security State Bancshares Inc. of Charleston posted the second-largest loan volume in Missouri at $28.5 million, growing 16 percent. Other Missouri banks:
- Southern Missouri Bancorp Inc. of Poplar Bluff loaned $27 million over baseline, an increase of 14 percent;
- Liberty Bancorp Inc. of Liberty loaned $17.9 million, increasing 22 percent;
- The Landrum Co. of Columbia loaned $12.9 million, edging up 3 percent;
- Cardinal Bancorp II Inc. of Washington loaned $11.4 million over baseline, an increase of 18.2 percent; and
- Frontenac-based Triad Bancorp Inc. loaned $15.7 million, strengthening by 51.5 percent.
On the other end of the scale, Arnold-based Fortune Financial Corp. decreased lending by $4.5 million below baseline, falling 9.7 percent.
Aiming to encourage lending to small businesses by providing capital to community banks with less than $10 billion in assets, the SBLF program reduces the dividend or interest rates a community bank pays on funding as the bank increases its lending to small businesses. As of Sept. 30, the average rate paid by community banks on SBLF capital was 2 percent. According to the release, banks can reduce the rate to 1 percent by increasing qualified small-business lending by 10 percent over their baseline.
Under the Small Business Jobs Act, the Treasury Department has invested more than $4 billion in 332 institutions, operating in more than 3,000 locations across 48 states.
“In every region of the country, the Obama administration’s Small Business Lending Fund is supporting small and family-owned businesses with the funds they need to create jobs and grow,” Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin said in the release. “This quarter’s report shows that SBLF participants are continuing to help thousands of small businesses invest, hire and expand in their local communities.”[[In-content Ad]]
