The two most active lenders in the national index accounted for roughly one in five recorded approvals. Narrow the search to full-service restaurants in California, and a different lender leads. A national ranking can help start a shortlist, but it cannot answer which lenders have repeatedly financed your type of deal in your market.
How the leader changes as the scope narrows
| Scope | Leader by count | Leader approvals | Scope total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nationwide, all industries | The Huntington National Bank | 2,324 | 20,769 |
| California, all industries | Live Oak Banking Company | 264 | 2,090 |
| Nationwide, full-service restaurants | The Huntington National Bank | 202 | 1,235 |
| California, full-service restaurants | Hanmi Bank | 17 | 143 |
Huntington and Live Oak together had 4,403 approvals nationally, or 21.2% of the sample. The top five names accounted for 5,799 approvals, or 27.9%. The remaining approvals were spread across a long list of lender names. The concentration figure counts names as reported by the SBA after basic whitespace cleanup. It does not consolidate aliases, subsidiaries or merger histories.
A case study in California restaurants
In California full-service restaurants, Hanmi Bank recorded 17 approvals, PCB Bank 11 and Huntington 10. There were 50 distinct reported lender names among the 143 records. Hanmi’s leading share was about 12%, leaving most approvals to other names. The same industry in Texas shows a different order, with PCB Bank recording 19 of 124 approvals and Huntington 16.
Differences of a few approvals can move a lender several places in a narrow segment. A recorded count also omits any applications the lender declined and any transactions financed outside this SBA program. It offers evidence of activity, with no denominator for an approval rate.
Read across three levels
Start with the national industry profile to see recurring lenders. Use the state profile to surface regional activity, then open the state-and-industry profile to see where the two intersect. If the local sample is sparse, use the broader lists and ask lenders for recent examples of similar deals.
This comparison ranks by approval count and uses approved dollars as a tiebreaker, consistent with the live index. No comparison uses applications or borrower names.