The Florida banks reported a combined $1.44 billion in small business loans as of June 30, 21 percent more than the $1.19 billion “baseline” established by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for measuring the impact of the lending fund.
Nationwide, a report from the Treasury said there was a $6.7 billion increase in small business lending over the baseline.
The Small Business Lending Fund was established as part of the Small Business Jobs Act signed into law by President Obama in 2010. Treasury invested more than $4 billion in 332 institutions through the fund.
The 17 Florida banks have a total of $144.6 million in Small Business Lending Funds outstanding.
The figures include six community banks in the Tampa Bay area — Community Southern Bank in Lakeland, Florida Business BancGroup Inc. in Tampa, Florida Traditions Bank in Dade City, HomeBancorp Inc. in Tampa, Jefferson Bank in Oldsmar and Platinum Bank in Brandon.
Among the local banks, Jefferson Bank had the biggest increase. The bank had $24.1 million in small business loans as of June 30, a $10.2 million increase, or 73.5 percent jump, over its baseline, or the average of the amounts that were reported for each of the four calendar quarters ended June 30, 2010.
Florida Traditions was close behind, with $100.8 million in small business loans as of June 30, a 64.5 percent increase over the baseline.
Community Southern, with $45.6 million in small business loans on June 30, had a 59.3 percent increase over the baseline.
Florida Business BancGroup, the holding company for Bay Cities Bank, had $110.6 million in small business loans on June 30, a 12.3 percent increase over the baseline.
Platinum Bank posted a 6 percent increase, with $176.7 million in small business loans on June 30.
HomeBancorp, the holding company of Homebanc, had a 1.6 percent decline in small business lending, according to the Treasury report. HomeBancorp had $12.1 million in small business loans as of June 30, the report said.
Nationwide, 89 percent of participants increased their small business lending over baseline levels the report said.
Journal by Margie Manning, Quality and Content Editor