Ownerbound

Methodology

Sources

Filters and counts

We keep loans where the field BusinessAge equals "Change of Ownership". We remove cancelled loans.

We group loans by industry code (NAICS) and state. We also group them by industry nationwide.

These are loans the SBA approved. Most were paid out. About 6% were approved but not yet paid out, and about 10% are credit lines. We keep all of them.

Amounts are gross approved amounts, not money paid out. The file lists the lender that currently holds each loan. It may not be the original lender.

SBA changed industry codes in 2022. The same industry can appear under an old code (loans to FY2022) and a new code (loans from FY2022). Each page shows only its own code, so neither shows the full history.

We publish aggregates only. We never show borrower names, addresses or single loans.

A cell with fewer than 10 loans shows "Not enough loans to show this number." The same limit applies to years, lenders and counties inside a table.

A charge-off rate shows only with 30 or more seasoned loans. Seasoned means approved in FY2020 to FY2022. Under 100 seasoned loans, we show a band, not an exact rate.

Rates are counted by loans. The national seasoned rate is about 2% by count and about 1% by dollars.

Loan status is shown as last reported in the file.

Medians and middle-half ranges are computed on the downloaded file. Loan amounts are rounded to $1,000.

Hidden numbers can sometimes be guessed by subtracting shown numbers. We hide a second year when only one year is under 10, to limit this.

Census numbers come from the 2023 state file. They cover business locations, employees and annual payroll.

A charge-off rate and its national comparison are labeled Estimate. Loan counts, medians and shares of loan counts come straight from the file. They are not estimates.

Charge-offs

Charged off is an SBA loan status. It means the lender wrote off the loan. It does not mean the business closed.

Many businesses close without a charge-off, and some charged-off businesses keep operating. The amount charged off is a balance, not a final loss.

The rate covers loans approved in FY2020 to FY2022. It counts every charge-off up to Jun 30, 2026. It is not a yearly rate.

Older loans have had more time to be charged off. The pooled rate mixes loans of different ages.

With under 100 seasoned loans, one loan moves this rate by more than 1 point. We show a band, such as Under 3% or 3% to 6%.

With 100 or more seasoned loans, we round to a whole percent and do not show the exact count.

Dates and updates

Every row in the current SBA file is dated Jun 30, 2026. Each page shows the data date.

SBA updates the file quarterly, about one month after quarter end. We plan to update this when SBA publishes a new file.

Known gaps

The 7(a) file does not cover every business purchase. Cash deals, seller-note deals and bank deals never appear.

Some purchases are likely coded Existing instead of Change of Ownership. This is an estimate. Counts here may be low for purchases.

The 504 program adds very few. It had 244 change-of-ownership loans in FY2025.

FY2026 covers Oct 1 to Jun 30 only. Compare it with the same nine months of earlier years.

Small industry and state cells are hidden, so some combinations have no page.

Census counts include noise added by Census. Industry codes can differ slightly between the two sources.

Not every loan labeled change of ownership is a verified business purchase.

Licensing

SBA data is published as U.S. Government Works. Ownerbound uses it as public data.

Ownerbound is not affiliated with the SBA. The SBA does not endorse Ownerbound.