FDIC Initiates Small Business Lending Survey — 2016-06-28

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) today announced the launch of a survey of banks regarding their small business lending practices. The web-based survey of roughly 2,000 randomly selected FDIC-insured banks will begin in late June and will be administered by the U.S. Census Bureau on behalf of the FDIC. The Small Business Lending Survey (SBLS) will collect data that provide additional insight into many aspects of small business lending, including nationally representative information on the general characteristics of banks’ small business borrowers, the types of credit offered to small businesses, and the relative importance of commercial lending for banks of different sizes and business models. It will also look at data for banks in urban and rural communities. The survey will provide new information on banks’ market areas for small business lending and their perceived competition.