Data Sources
Data on SBA Pulse is primarily sourced from official SBA.gov reports and datasets, supplemented by other publicly available industry sources where necessary. This page documents every source, what it feeds, and where to find the original data.
Monthly Activity Reports
Published monthly by the SBA. These reports reflect cumulative fiscal year-to-date activity and are updated with each monthly reporting cycle. Current data is as of April 30, 2026.
7(a) Lender Activity Report
Individual lender rankings, loan counts, and approval volumes for the 7(a) program. Includes breakdowns by project state and county. State-level geographic data is aggregated from the project state breakdown across all lenders.
Used in: 7(a) Summary tab — lender rankings, geographic distribution, Lender Explorer
504 CDC Activity Report
Individual CDC rankings, loan counts, and approval volumes for the 504 program. Includes breakdowns by project state and county. State-level geographic data is aggregated from the project state breakdown across all CDCs.
Used in: 504 Summary tab (CDC view) — CDC rankings, geographic distribution, Lender Explorer
504 Third Party Lender Activity Report
Individual third party lender (TPL) rankings for the 504 program. TPLs are the banks that provide the first mortgage in a 504 loan. Dollar volumes reflect TPL Approved Dollars — the total first mortgage amount committed by the third party lender, which is typically larger than the SBA-guaranteed debenture portion. Includes breakdowns by project state and county.
Used in: 504 Summary tab (Third Party Lender view) — TPL rankings, geographic distribution, Lender Explorer
7(a) & 504 Activity Dashboard
Demographic and segment breakdowns including ethnicity, gender, business age, veteran status, rural/urban, and loan size distribution.
Used in: Demographics tab
Historical Year-End Reports
Archived year-end activity reports from FY2022 through FY2025, sourced from data.sba.gov. Historical data reflects fiscal year-end figures and is not restated for subsequent lender acquisitions or mergers.
FY2025 Year-End Reports
Activity reports as of September 30, 2025.
FY2024 Year-End Reports
Activity reports as of September 30, 2024.
FY2023 Year-End Reports
Activity reports as of September 30, 2023.
FY2022 Year-End Reports
Activity reports as of September 30, 2022.
Portfolio Health
Unpaid principal balance, charge-off amounts, and charge-off rates by program. Sourced from the SBA Loan Program Performance reports on SBA.gov. Data is as of June 30, 2025 and covers FY2016 through FY2025.
UPB Report
Unpaid principal balance by program (7(a), 504 Regular, 504 First Lien, 504 Refi).
Used in: Portfolio Health tab — UPB chart
Charge-Off Amount Report
Annual charge-off dollar amounts by program.
Used in: Portfolio Health tab — Charge-Off Amounts chart
Charge-Off Rates Report
Charge-off rates as a percentage of UPB by program.
Used in: Portfolio Health tab — Charge-Off Rate Trend chart
Loan-Level FOIA Data
Loan-level approval files released by the SBA in response to public Freedom of Information Act requests. Each row represents a single approved loan, with origination details (CDC, third party lender, borrower city/state, NAICS, term, gross approval) and lifecycle outcomes (paid in full date, charge-off date, charge-off amount, jobs supported). Updated by the SBA on an irregular cadence — typically once or twice per year.
504 FOIA Loan-Level File (FY2010 – present)
Every 504 loan approved from FY2010 through the file's as-of date (currently December 31, 2025), including loans that have since been paid in full or charged off. CDC names are truncated to 30 characters in the source file, so we maintain a manual display-name mapping for the most common CDCs. Loans with status PIF, EXEMPT, or CHGOFF are considered 'funded'; cancelled and not-funded loans are included for reference but excluded from cohort metrics.
Used in: 504 FOIA Explorer — overview, cohort curves, CDC comparison, vintage heatmap, full loan table
504 Debenture Rates
Monthly 504 debenture effective rates for 10, 20, and 25-year terms, including standard, manufacturing, and refinance variants. Rates are updated on the first Thursday of each month with each funding cycle.
504 Debenture Rate History
Historical effective rates from January 2025 to present. Manufacturing rates available from October 2025.
Used in: Rates page, Home page market snapshot
Methodology Notes
- Fiscal year: The SBA fiscal year runs October 1 through September 30. FY2026 started October 1, 2025.
- Approval amounts: Dollar figures for 7(a) and 504 CDC represent gross approval amounts (total loan size), not the SBA-guaranteed portion. For 504 Third Party Lenders, dollar figures reflect TPL Approved Dollars — the first mortgage amount committed by the third party lender.
- Historical data: Year-end reports are archived snapshots and are not restated for subsequent lender acquisitions, mergers, or name changes. Current-year figures may differ from SBA.gov due to restated data.
- Geographic data: State-level data is aggregated from project state breakdowns in the lender and CDC activity reports. Territories and districts (PR, GU, VI, DC, AS) are included where reported.
- Demographics: Segment data (ethnicity, gender, veteran status, etc.) is available for the current fiscal year only and reflects the latest monthly snapshot.
- Portfolio health: UPB and charge-off data is sourced from the SBA Loan Program Performance reports on SBA.gov, as of June 30, 2025.
- Debenture rates: 504 rates are sourced from cdcloans.com. Manufacturing-specific terms became available in October 2025.
- FOIA loan-level data: The 504 FOIA Explorer uses the SBA's public FOIA release covering approvals from FY2010 through the file's as-of date. CDC names in the source are truncated to 30 characters; we map the most common CDCs to cleaner display names. Cohort outcomes (PIF, CHGOFF) are right-censored at each loan's observed seasoning — recent vintages have had less time to pay off or charge off, so their cumulative rates will naturally climb as they age. Pandemic-era cohorts (FY2020–FY2021) saw elevated prepayments; we surface this in the cohort analysis rather than adjusting the data. Jobs-supported figures are self-reported at approval and are not audited.