Small Business Loan Approval Rates Hit Post-Recession Highs

The U.S. credit market that completely ground to a halt during the economic crisis of 2008 is now flowing as freely as ever. A new report from Biz2Credit revealed that a higher percentage of small business loans are now getting bank approvals than at any time since the last recession.

In the month of July, big U.S. banks approved 24.5 percent of small business loan application, up 0.2 percent from June. Small business loan approvals by smaller regional banks are at a post-crisis high of 48.9 percent as well.

“Overall, I would say that bank lending is stronger now than at any other time since before the Great Recession,” Biz2Credit CEO Rohit Arora said in the report.

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In addition to bank approval rates mentioned above, institutional lenders’ approval rates increased to an all-time high of 63.9 percent in July, while alternative lenders’ approval rates dropped 0.3 percent to 57.2 percent.

Credit unions approved 40.4 percent of small business loans.

But entrepreneurs and small business owners aren’t the only ones taking advantage of the booming U.S. credit market. The latest Federal Reserve report shows that total outstanding credit card debt in the U.S. has eclipsed pre-crisis levels and now stands at an all-time high of $1.02 trillion. The 2008 financial crisis forced banks to write off more than $100 billion in credit card debt, according to Bloomberg.

While a healthy appetite for credit is part of a healthy economy, the fallout from the mortgage market collapse has some investors concerned about the risks of record credit levels in the auto and credit card debt markets. In the second quarter, Capital One Financial Corp COF, Synchrony Financial SYF and Discover Financial Services DFS all reported increases in credit card debt write-offs.