Huntington Bank Remains No. 2 SBA Lender in US

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Huntington Bank remains the second-largest source of U.S. Small Business Administration loans in the United States and the largest in the Midwest, Maggie Ference said Thursday.

Ference is the bank’s SBA group manager.

Since 2011, Huntington has ranked within the top three in the United States, once reaching No. 1, and has ranked first in the six states in its footprint since 2008.

It has been the top SBA 7(a) lender in total loans and total dollars lent in the region that consists of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, western Pennsylvania, northern Kentucky and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. It also has loans on its books in Florida, Illinois and Wisconsin that result from its acquisition of FirstMerit Bank.

The bank added 17 SBA-lending specialists over the last 12 months, Ference said, and lending to startups (entities in business a year or less) rose 69% to $214 million.

Lending for business acquisitions increased 83% to $249 million, “as a larger percentage of baby boomers sought the bank’s succession services to pass along their businesses to the next generation,” she noted.

The total Huntington lent in fiscal 2016 (Oct. 1, 2015 to Sept. 30, 2016) was $633 million, Ference said. It extended 3,905 7(a) loans. The bank far and away ranked first in both number of loans and amount lent in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, western Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

SBA-related lending constituted somewhere between 30% and 35% of its small-business loan portfolio for the quarter ended June 30, a spokesman said, and between 15% and 20% of its commercial and industrial loan portfolio.

Following are the number of loans Huntington made in the states where it has a presence and the total lent followed by the banks that ranked second by loans and dollars lent:

Ohio

• Huntington: 2,040 loans, $332.63 million.
• S. Bank: 244 loans, $83.35 million.

Michigan

• Huntington: 1,113 loans, $168.5 million.
• Comerica Bank: 139 loans. Chemical Bank: $47.54 million.

Indiana

• Huntington: 315 loans, $43.94 million.
• 1st Source Bank: 136 loans. Ridgestone Bank, $35.28 million.

Western Pennsylvania

• Huntington: 225 loans, $35.48 million.
• Citizens Bank: 47 loans. PNC Bank: $9.31 million.

West Virginia

• Huntington: 67 loans, $17.82 million.
• MVB Bank: 12 loans. Republic Bank: $2.2 million.

In an unrelated matter, the parent of Huntington Bank, Huntington Bancshares Inc., announced yesterday that its directors increased the quarterly cash dividend on common shares by a penny to eight cents a share payable Jan. 2 to shareholders of record Dec. 20

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.