Through a federal loan program called the Small Business Lending Fund, 17 banks in Florida and three in South Florida increased their small business lending.
Broward Bank of Commerce in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Shores Bancorp in Pompano Beach, Marquis Bank in Coral Gables, and Florida Traditions Bank in Dade City increased their lending by a total of $117 million as of June 30.
Florida banks participating in the Small Business Lending Fund increased their lending by $250.82 million. The banks reported a total of $1.4 billion in loans, 21 percent more than the $1.2 billion baseline set by the Treasury to measure the program.
Broward Bank’s lending increased by 72 percent over the “baseline” and Florida Shores’ lending was up by 21 percent. Marquis’ lending and Florida Traditions’ rose by 132 percent. All Florida banks that took part in the Small Business Lending Fund increased their lending. The 17 banks have given $144.6 million in outstanding loans to small business through the program. The four South Florida banks have $28 million in outstanding small business loans from the fund.
A key provision in the Treasury lending program is an expansion of previous loan limits. Banks can now make larger loans under the program to small businesses. And larger businesses, those with under $50 million in revenue, can qualify for loans up to $10 million. To further encourage banks to lend, the more a bank lends, the lower the interest rate charged by the Treasury will be. Nationwide banks participating in this fund have increased their small business lending by $6.7 billion dollars, about 18.5 percent. This is $1.5 billion over the prior quarter.