Nov 15, 2013
By Michael Clinton
Hispanic business owners are becoming more sophisticated, making lenders more comfortable about giving them loans.
That is driving up the dollar value of U.S. Small Business Administration loans, although the number of loans has been relatively flat in the past few years.
In the SBA’s North Florida District, banks made 54 loans totaling more than $26 million in the last fiscal year, which closed Sept. 30. The district includes many counties stretching from Northeast Florida to Central Florida.
Eleven of those loans were in metro Jacksonville, totaling about $7 million. SunTrust Bank has the largest loan, at $2.9 million, and Florida First Capital Financial Corp. had the most loans, with three.
Wilfredo Gonzalez, director of the North Florida District office, said Hispanic business owners are taking more classes and receiving counseling and, as a result, are looking to expand. That increase of sophistication is making lenders more comfortable.
“Lenders are still gun shy about defaults; they have been more stringent in terms of demonstrating [owners] can pay loans back,” he said.
Those who can prove they will repay are able to get bigger loans, he said.
And the types of loans are changing too.
Five or six years ago, restaurants were a significant portion of SBA loans to Hispanics. Now, he said, there are a lot more medical service-related companies looking to get loans — likely a response to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, which seeks to improve American health care delivery and patient care through an investment in health information technology.
Gonzalez said the SBA doesn’t have specific programs for Hispanics, but that it partners with organizations such as the First Coast Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.
Take a look at the table below to see loan data for Hispanic business owners in the past five years.
Source: Jacksonville Business Journal
Recent Comments