# SME lending: Small Business Credit Benchmarks

> The Small Business Credit Benchmarks carries 3 published figures read from 2 sources' own pages, from 15 to 75 percent, read 12 October 2026.

Working Capital Quotes · https://workingcapitalquotes.com/datasets/small-business-credit-benchmarks/ · computed 2026-10-18

**Range of the published figures:** 15 to 75 % (range 15 to 75 %; 3 published figures; 2 of 12 sources read publish one).

2 of the 12 named sources read in full publish a figure; 10 publish none, read 12 October 2026.

## By measure

| Breakdown | Median | Range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| measure asset finance new business growth | 15 % | 15 to 15 % | 1 |
| measure approval rate at small banks | 75 % | 75 to 75 % | 1 |
| measure share of small businesses applying for credit | 23 % | 23 to 23 % | 1 |

## Every figure, with its source

One row per source: the figure the source's own page publishes, the page, and the day it was read.

| Source | Figure | Breakdown | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Federal Reserve - Consumer & Community Context (small business credit)](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-march-consumer-community-context.htm) | 75 % | approval rate at small banks | 2026-10-12 |
| [Federal Reserve - Consumer & Community Context (small business credit)](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-march-consumer-community-context.htm) | 23 % | share of small businesses applying for credit | 2026-10-12 |
| [Finance & Leasing Association - latest asset finance statistics (GB)](https://fla.org.uk/research/asset-finance-statistics/) | 15 % | asset finance new business growth | 2026-10-12 |

## The sentence each figure was read from (3)

- [Federal Reserve - Consumer & Community Context (small business credit)](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-march-consumer-community-context.htm), read 2026-10-12: "In 2023, small banks approved 75 percent of loan, line of credit, and cash advance applicants for at least some of the financing they sought, while large banks approved 66 percent of applicants for at least some financing in 2023."
- [Federal Reserve - Consumer & Community Context (small business credit)](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-march-consumer-community-context.htm), read 2026-10-12: "In 2023, less than one-quarter (23 percent) of small businesses applied for loans, lines of credit, and cash advances from online lenders."
- [Finance & Leasing Association - latest asset finance statistics (GB)](https://fla.org.uk/research/asset-finance-statistics/), read 2026-10-12: "New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew by 15% in June 2026 compared with the same month in 2025."

## Read in full, publishes no figure

- [Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City - Small Business Lending Survey](https://www.kansascityfed.org/surveys/small-business-lending-survey/), read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [Federal Reserve H.15 Selected Interest Rates](https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/), read 2026-10-11: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile](https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/quarterly-banking-profile), read 2026-09-12: every candidate on the page was refused
- [Bank of England Bank Rate (GB)](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/Bank-Rate.asp), read 2026-10-10: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [US Census Bureau Annual Business Survey](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/abs.html), read 2026-10-11: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [data.gov - Survey of Small Business and Farm Lending (Board of Governors)](https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/survey-of-small-business-and-farm-lending), read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [Fed Small Business (Small Business Credit Survey)](https://www.fedsmallbusiness.org/), read 2026-09-25: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [Finance & Leasing Association - statistics releases (GB)](https://fla.org.uk/news-category/statistics/), read 2026-10-12: every candidate on the page was refused
- [UK Finance Business Finance Review](https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/business-finance-review), read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [UK Finance invoice finance and asset-based lending](https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/our-expertise/commercial-finance/invoice-finance-and-asset-based-lending), read 2026-09-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page

## Methodology

Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2). 2 of the 12 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 10 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 0 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere. The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source for each breakdown it prices, in % (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences for one breakdown), so a page that gives figures for several breakdowns gives one for each and N counts 3 figures, never sentences; 35 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded. The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): one series per body per measure - the Kansas City Fed's Small Business Lending Survey terms of lending, the Fed's Small Business Credit Survey approval rates by product and applicant, the FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile, the FLA's monthly asset finance new business, UK Finance's invoice finance and asset-based lending client and advance figures, the Bank of England base rate and the Federal Reserve prime - each sourced to the body that published it and dated to its release; the derivation nobody publishes is the SPREAD: the private market's advertised rates from this site's own three provider indexes, plotted against the official benchmark on the same day, so a buyer can see what the gap between the survey's average and the quote in front of them actually is, and how that gap has moved

## Sources

- [Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City - Small Business Lending Survey](https://www.kansascityfed.org/surveys/small-business-lending-survey/) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Federal Reserve - Consumer & Community Context (small business credit)](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-march-consumer-community-context.htm) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Federal Reserve H.15 Selected Interest Rates](https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h15/) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [FDIC Quarterly Banking Profile](https://www.fdic.gov/analysis/quarterly-banking-profile) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Bank of England Bank Rate (GB)](https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/Bank-Rate.asp) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [US Census Bureau Annual Business Survey](https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/abs.html) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [data.gov - Survey of Small Business and Farm Lending (Board of Governors)](https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/survey-of-small-business-and-farm-lending) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Fed Small Business (Small Business Credit Survey)](https://www.fedsmallbusiness.org/) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Finance & Leasing Association - latest asset finance statistics (GB)](https://fla.org.uk/research/asset-finance-statistics/) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Finance & Leasing Association - statistics releases (GB)](https://fla.org.uk/news-category/statistics/) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [UK Finance Business Finance Review](https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data/business-finance-review) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [UK Finance invoice finance and asset-based lending](https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/our-expertise/commercial-finance/invoice-finance-and-asset-based-lending) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)

## Cite or embed

- The Small Business Credit Benchmarks carries 3 published figures read from 2 sources' own pages, from 15 to 75 percent, read 12 October 2026.
- 2 of the 12 named sources read in full publish a figure; 10 publish none, read 12 October 2026.
- Small Business Credit Benchmarks, measure asset finance new business growth: median 15 percent across 1 source, read 12 October 2026.
- Small Business Credit Benchmarks, measure approval rate at small banks: median 75 percent across 1 source, read 12 October 2026.
- Small Business Credit Benchmarks, measure share of small businesses applying for credit: median 23 percent across 1 source, read 12 October 2026.

Cite as: "Working Capital Quotes Small Business Credit Benchmarks", updated 2026-10-18, https://workingcapitalquotes.com/datasets/small-business-credit-benchmarks/.

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