How the 2027 ranking works

Each lender and loan officer gets a score from five inputs. The weights are the same in every category; what changes is the loan type or place the category covers.

• Public record. Charter status with the FDIC, OCC, NCUA or the provincial or federal regulator in Canada, business filings and regulator actions. A clean, current record is the floor for entry.
• Program approvals. SBA lender and Preferred Lender status, SBA 7(a) and 504 approvals by fiscal year, CDFI certification and Canada Small Business Financing Program participation, each linked to the program's own record.
• Response to contact requests. How fast the lender or loan officer first replies to owners who request contact through the register, and how many requests get a reply at all.
• Claimed and verified standing. Whether the entry is claimed and kept current, and whether the lender is verified as active with its regulator and funding business loans in the last twelve months.
• Owner reports. Confirmed reports from business owners who closed a loan: the loan funded, the time it took, and whether they would borrow there again.

Lenders submit 2026 funded business volume, deal count and median days from application to funding by loan type. To qualify, a lender needs $10M funded or 40 business loans in the year. Program approvals are read straight from the program record, so an SBA lender's approvals count whether or not it submits them.

Within each list, lenders are ordered by score. Ties go to the lender with more confirmed owner reports.

Loan officer of the year is chosen in each of six regions: West, Southwest, Midwest, Southeast, Northeast and Canada. A loan officer needs a claimed profile on the register and a lender that confirms their role. Response to contact requests and owner reports carry the most weight here, since they speak to the person rather than the institution.

We ask a sample of funded owners for each lender to confirm the loan and the time it took. The top 20 lenders in each category send funding statements. Figures that cannot be confirmed come out before ranking, and the lender is told which ones and why.

• Entry, ranking and badges are free. Sponsors have no say over the numbers, and a ranked lender cannot sponsor.
• Business lending only. Residential mortgage and consumer lending do not count toward volume or deal count.
• A lender whose standing changes during the year can lose its place, and its badge embed switches off.
• Every ranked lender's confirmed volume and median days to funding are published beside its place.

See the categories and what honorees receive on the awards page, or read how standing works on the register.