SBA loan data can help focus on minority-owned businesses
By Rosland Gammon
businessjournalism.org
After analyzing 20 years of Small Business Administration loan data, Bryant Ruiz Switzky of the Washington Business Journal found the number of business loans to African Americans dropped 87 percent between 2007 and 2011. That figure became part of a package of stories called Impossible Dreams. The stories explore the reasons behind the decline as well as practices, such as lenders disregarding borrowers' business plans, that contributed to a large default rate among loans to African American business owners.
"One of the reasons no one writes about this issue is because nobody is paying attention," Bryant says. "Nobody is paying attention because there is no data to pay attention to."
Bryant's FOIA request to the local SBA district generated spreadsheets with 80 columns of data, he says. He narrowed the columns and created a pivot table with gross loan amounts, date and ethnicity to find patterns.
"There's a lot of rich info about borrowers," he says.
Narrowing the data down to ethnicity and lending institutions led him to an SBA program called Community Express, which generated the most loans in the African American business community. That led him to a lender that profited from the smaller loans before being seized by regulators.
"The threads you pull out can lead you in different directions," he says.
Bryant also suggests using Community Reinvestment Act data to determine where small business loans go. It requires large banks to provide annual reports on the number of business loans made for less than $1 million and the total value of those loans, Bryant says. It also requires banks to break the data down by Census tract and county. The downside is the CRA information is based on 2010 census tracts, Bryant says.
+ Top Story
Americans were born to make lemonade. If you have any doubt about the resiliency of U.S. workers, consider the many reports that indicate millions of Americans are turning life’s lemon of layoffs into an opportunity to work for themselves.
The Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics, in partnership with the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy will offer up to seven New Urban Mechanics Challenge Grants, totaling $25,000, to individuals or groups who create an innovative project that incorporates...
State Rep. Dwight Evans, D-Phila., recently said education and local taxpayers no longer can take the brunt of short-sighted budget policies emanating from Harrisburg. "We used to caution that the quality of education should not depend on a student's zip code," Evans said.
More than 60 percent of poll respondents in Georgia and South Carolina favor expanding their state’s Medicaid program to cover more people, while only a third approve of the health care reform law that would make it possible, a poll released Tuesday found.
Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU) last week revealed the results of its 2013-2014 “African American Financial Experience” study, which found that competing priorities and fewer investment products constrict African Americans’ ability to build a legacy of wealth.
UEF will provide financing and technical assistance to help small business owners create sustainable companies and vibrant communities nationwide across the markets it serves. Donald Bowen, has been appointed as President and CEO of the UEF, effective May 2.
New York’s attorney general on Monday accused Wells Fargo and Bank of America of violating the terms of last year’s national mortgage settlement by failing to process hundreds of refinancing requests promptly.
Christine Pacheco, director of career services at The Art Institute of Colorado, and Kristin Frank, director of career services at The Art Institute of Phoenix, share the top dos you should include to get noticed and get your foot in the door - and the don’ts that could get your resume tossed in the trash.