Original research · from the federal loan record
SBA lenders by charge-off rate: the best and the worst
Highest charge-off rates
≥100 loansA high figure usually reflects who a lender serves — very small loans, startups, or fintech-style volume — more than sloppiness. It is a risk signal to weigh, not a verdict. Read it next to the loan count, and against the ~2.11% all-lender average.
Lowest charge-off rates
≥100 loans| Lender | Loans, 5 yr | Typical loan | Charge-off rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvest Small Business Finance, LLC | 1,415 | $748,000 | 0.00% |
| GBank | 609 | $2,556,000 | 0.00% |
| Port 51 Lending LLC | 385 | $1,190,000 | 0.00% |
| Merchants Bank of Indiana | 299 | $657,600 | 0.00% |
| ChoiceOne Bank | 276 | $305,250 | 0.00% |
| Idaho Central CU | 268 | $300,000 | 0.00% |
| 22nd State Bank, A Division of 22nd State Banking Company | 215 | $970,000 | 0.00% |
| Valley National Bank | 191 | $689,000 | 0.00% |
| Maine Community Bank | 188 | $124,500 | 0.00% |
| ConnectOne Bank | 177 | $600,000 | 0.00% |
| Firstrust Savings Bank | 173 | $950,000 | 0.00% |
| Southwestern National Bank | 160 | $1,261,500 | 0.00% |
| Millennium Bank | 149 | $1,950,000 | 0.00% |
| St. Mary's CU | 149 | $49,300 | 0.00% |
| BankNewport | 118 | $60,000 | 0.00% |
| PS Bank | 115 | $70,000 | 0.00% |
| St. Louis Bank | 110 | $712,500 | 0.00% |
| First Service Bank | 105 | $350,000 | 0.00% |
| Countybank | 102 | $487,500 | 0.00% |
| Oxford Bank | 100 | $315,300 | 0.00% |
A 0% rate means none of the lender’s dollars charged off in the five-year window — strong, but often a sign of conservative, larger-loan lending. Lower default is not automatically the “better” lender for you if they never fund deals like yours.
The busiest SBA lenders, and how they perform
by 5-yr volume| Lender | Loans, 5 yr | Typical loan | Charge-off rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Huntington National Bank | 27,356 | $100,000 | 1.19% |
| TD Bank, National Association | 11,760 | $50,000 | 2.39% |
| U.S. Bank, National Association | 10,386 | $40,000 | 0.97% |
| Readycap Lending, LLC | 8,068 | $107,900 | 0.59% |
| BayFirst National Bank | 7,831 | $150,000 | 9.15% |
| Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company | 7,483 | $50,200 | 1.67% |
| Wells Fargo Bank National Association | 6,918 | $15,000 | 1.09% |
| Live Oak Banking Company | 6,588 | $745,000 | 0.53% |
| JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association | 6,186 | $190,000 | 1.55% |
| Northeast Bank | 5,911 | $100,000 | 1.08% |
| Celtic Bank Corporation | 4,325 | $150,000 | 3.32% |
| Lendistry SBLC, LLC | 3,327 | $150,000 | 13.55% |
| United Midwest Savings Bank National Association | 3,203 | $150,000 | 4.61% |
| Bank of America, National Association | 3,081 | $333,000 | 0.46% |
| KeyBank National Association | 2,909 | $50,000 | 0.58% |
The names you have heard of — ranked here by volume, with the charge-off rate most “best lenders” lists never show you.
How to read this — and why we can show it
A lender’s charge-off rate reflects how the loans it made have performed — useful context a borrower rarely gets. It is dollar-weighted over five years (the lender convention), so it differs from the count-based default rates we use for franchises and industries. And here is the part that matters: no lender pays to appear here, and we are not a broker. Every “best SBA lenders” list you will find is paid by lenders; this one is just the loan record. Then match the right lender to your deal with the matcher.
Evidence & reproducibility
check our work| Source | SBA 7(a) FOIA files |
| Data released | 2026-06-30 |
| Records analyzed | 383 lenders; rankings limited to lenders with ≥100 loans in the last five years |
| Definition | Charge-off rate = share of loan dollars charged off within a five-year window (the lender metric, dollar-weighted — distinct from our count-based franchise/industry default rates) |
| Exclusions | Lenders with too few recent loans to rank reliably |
| Analysis updated | 2026-07-31 |
| Download | All lenders, charge-off rates (CSV) |