Biden administration announces record $3 billion in loans for Latino-owned small businesses

Author: Jaelyn Campbell

On October 30, U.S. Small Business Administrator Isabel Guzman, President Biden’s representative for America’s more than 33 million small businesses, announced new data showing that the rate of SBA-backed loans to Latino-owned small businesses has more than doubled and surpassed $3 billion in lending. 

Affordable loans backed by the federal government are a vital funding option that the SBA’s lending programs provide small businesses in a tightening credit environment. In Fiscal Year 2023, the SBA’s flagship 7(a) and 504 loan programs provided over 7,700 SBA loans to Latino-owned small businesses, twice as many as it did in Fiscal Year 2020. 

Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, the total loan dollars for Latino entrepreneurs increased by almost $1.4 billion.

The SBA has increased access to its core capital programs, particularly for Latino entrepreneurs, by taking essential actions that align with the President’s Investing in America agenda. These consist of:   

• Extending the Community Advantage Program, which makes mission-driven lending a permanent component of the SBA loan program through the Community Advantage
• Small Business Lending Company license and provides lending to small businesses in underserved communities through mission-driven community lenders
• Using the $100 million Community Navigator Pilot Program made possible by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, initiating the Biden-Harris Administration’s nationwide Latino Prosperity Tour, increasing the number of Women’s Business
• Centers at Hispanic-Serving Institutions by more than three times, and putting new reforms into place to address enduring gaps in capital access.