In a news release, Biz2Credit said its Small Business Lending Index, an analysis of 1,000 loan applications, for the month of September revealed that approval rates jumped 30% at big banks.

During a month in which the overall volume of loan applications increased by 5.6%, the Index found that 14.2% of funding requests were approved by big banks ($10B+ in assets) in September – a 30% jump from 10.9% in August 2012. The figure represents the highest approval rating percentage for big banks since Biz2Credit began the Index in 2011.

“Lenders including Citibank, Sovereign and Citizens Bank are jumping head-first back into small business lending. The economy seems to be improving slowly, and the improvement has been a factor in their willingness to lend to small businesses,” said Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit co-founder and CEO, who oversaw the research. “This is a good sign for the economy. Combined with surprisingly good September jobs report, the positive economic news comes just as President Obama tries to recover from his poor debate performance against Mitt Romney.”

Biz2Credit analyzed loan requests ranging from $25,000 to $3 million from companies in business more than two years with an average credit score above 680. Unlike other surveys, the results are based on primary data submitted by more than 1,000 small business owners who applied for funding on Biz2Credit