Federal Reserve Banks
First published May 2018
The Small Business Credit Survey (SBCS), a national collaboration of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks, provides timely information on small business financing needs, decisions, and outcomes to policymakers, researchers, lenders, and service providers.
The report findings provide an in-depth look at small business performance, debt holdings, and credit experiences. Fielded in Q3 and Q4 2017, the survey yielded 8,169 responses from small employer firms, businesses that have 1-499 full- or part-time employees (hereafter “firms”), in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. New features of this year’s report include expanded time trend information and a detailed look at the credit experiences of firms by various segments, including revenue size, age, and industry. The survey findings complement other national data on aggregate lending volumes and lender perceptions.