This month, the SBA announced a new CAPline line of credit product to serve the capital needs of small businesses up to $5 million. We recently penned a quick overview of the CAPline solution in our sister publication, Small Business Finance Insights. This is a particularly interesting development as many banks tighten their credit positions, causing SBA activity stands to grow even faster with the advent of this new solution.

SBA lending has often been a vehicle to reach credits beyond the limitations of traditional lending. The government guarantee offers SBA lenders the ability to offload the risk and preserve precious deposit gathering and/or cross sell initiatives. Given a lending environment that remains somewhere between expectedly dynamic and surprisingly volatile, an examination of what sectors are actively seeking SBA funding might reveal insights on where traditional lending is least comfortable right now. But the data tells a familiar story.