SBA honors Utah lenders

At its recent Utah Lender Awards ceremony, the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Utah District Office honored several of its top lending partners for their achievements in providing capital through SBA’s traditional loan programs to Utah’s small businesses during the fiscal year 2021 (Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021).

The SBA also recognized lenders that provided significant funding locally and nationally through its Paycheck Protection Program in 2020 and 2021. The ceremony was held at the Salt Lake City Marriott City Center Hotel.{mprestriction ids="1,3"}

“We appreciate the long hours that were put in by our lending partners, who often worked late into the night and on weekends,” said Marla Trollan, SBA Utah district director. “Despite COVID’s challenges, our Utah lenders provided a total of $1.34 billion in traditional funding, a 50 percent increase over FY20. Not only did they set record numbers, but they also provided enormous amounts of SBA COVID-relief funding to these small businesses. These lenders’ dedication to the Utah small-business community resulted in over $7 billion of PPP funding during 2020 and 2021. Their efforts have helped drive Utah’s recovery and made a positive economic impact. Our lenders continue to make the Utah District Office one of the top three district offices in the nation for the number and dollar amount of SBA loans per capita in SBA 7(a) and 504 funding.”

The lenders honored at the events and the categories of their awards were:

Mountain America Credit Union, Top 7(a) lender by Number of Approvals and Top 7(a) Rural Lender; America First Credit Union, Top 7(a) Lender by Dollars Approved and Top Credit Union 7(a) Lender by Dollars Approved (this was a national award presented by the Utah District Office); Mountain West Small Business Finance, Top 504 Lender, Top Women-Owned Lender, Top Minority-Owned Lender, Top Lender to Rural Businesses, Top Ten 504 Lender (national award presented by the Utah District Office); Zions Bank, Top Veteran-Owned Lender by Number; Utah CDC, Top Veteran-Owned Lender by Dollars Approved; and Cache Valley Bank, Top 504 Third Party Lender.

The Paycheck Protection Program lending awards and volume numbers for 2020-21 went to: Zions Bank, 16,693 loans totaling $1,780,413,333 locally and 78,113 loans totaling $10,392,199,357 nationally; Cache Valley Bank, 10,093 loans totaling $752,507,602; Mountain America Federal Credit Union, 8,295 loans totaling $413,961,229, America First Credit Union, 4,220 loans totaling $164,517,767; JP Morgan Chase Bank, 3,562 loans totaling $393,451,365; WebBank, 110,123 loans totaling $2,950,359,388 (nationally); and Celtic Bank, 93,944 loans totaling $4,017,442,218 (nationally).{/mprestriction}