M&T Bank has grown to become America’s fifth-largest issuer of U.S. Small Business Administration 7(a) loans, based on recently released SBA data.

M&T increased SBA 7(a) dollars to small businesses by nearly by 33.7 percent from 2012 levels, extending 1,156 loans for a total of $162.8 million. The small business loan totals grew from 1,089 SBA loans for $121.8 million in 2012. Only four other lenders issued more 7(a) loans during the 2013 federal fiscal year that ended September 30.

“M&T’s consistent approach reflects our unwavering commitment to providing small business owners and entrepreneurs the capital and technical assistance they need to operate and grow their businesses,” said Janet Coletti, senior vice president for business banking at M&T.

“We’ve consistently served the small business market through all stages of the economic cycle and the $41 million increase in our SBA 7(a) loans last year helped hundreds of businesses finance new buildings, purchase equipment and create jobs.”

M&T also ranked as a leading SBA lender in most of its major Northeast and Mid-Atlantic communities, including: Baltimore,
Buffalo, Delaware, New York City, Philadelphia, Rochester Branch, Syracuse and Washington.

The 7(a) program is the SBA’s largest loan guarantee program, helping start-up and existing small businesses with operating capital for a variety of general business purposes. Since 1989, M&T Bank has provided more than $2.5 billion in SBA-guaranteed financing to thousands of small businesses.

As an SBA-preferred lender, M&T can offer an expedited process on loan requests of less than $100,000, to quickly get a small business needed operating funds.