The Small Business Administration’s April 3, 2023, awards put a practical face on the financing infrastructure behind small-business exporting. Regions Bank and Amerant Bank were named Export Lenders of the Year; Berkshire Bank received the International Trade Loan Lender of the Year award. The agency framed the recognition around lenders helping firms finance trade and develop overseas markets, rather than around a new lending rule or guarantee announced that day. [story-s1]

The bank-level figures suggest the awards covered different operating profiles. The SBA said Regions provided more than $36 million in 2022 financing through the Export Working Capital Program and International Trade Loan programs, and retained the largest active EWCP portfolio nationally. The agency said Amerant provided more than $20 million through EWCP and Export Express, with export loans representing over half of its commitments. The release credited Berkshire with $15 million through the International Trade Loan program and 193 SBA loans totaling $200 million across its broader portfolio. These are figures presented in the SBA release, not a comparison of loan performance or borrower outcomes. [story-s1]

The program descriptions distinguish working-capital needs from longer-term capacity: EWCP can support purchase orders and receivables, while the International Trade Loan can support export-capacity building and reshoring. Export Express is positioned for quick access to smaller-dollar financing. For a small firm, that menu matters because an export order, a receivable gap and investment in production capacity are different financing problems; the award announcement does not establish that any one program is suitable for a particular borrower. [story-s1]

The SBA said small businesses made up 97.4% of U.S. exporters and that its fiscal 2022 guarantees of $423 million supported more than $1.6 billion in export sales. Those agency-wide figures provide context, but they should not be added to the amounts attributed to the three banks: the measures describe different scopes. The announcement’s useful takeaway is narrower: federal export support ran through multiple lender relationships and products, with each product aimed at a different financing function. [story-s1]

Source documents

  1. U.S. Small Business Administration Announces 2023 Export Lender Award Winnershttps://www.sba.gov/article/2023/04/03/us-small-business-administration-announces-2023-export-lender-award-winners