A CDFI cracks the IE's top-ten SBA lenders — writing the small checks others dropped

Citrus Belt Review: Lendistry, a Los Angeles-based community development financial institution, ranked among the ten most active SBA lenders in the IE counties in the first quarter with eight approvals, according to SBA 7(a) loan-level data. Its book is the inverse of the quarter's trend: the eight loans average $160,000 against a quarter-wide average of $557,000, and every one went to an existing business — trucking firms in Fontana, contractors in Perris and Jurupa Valley, small service businesses in Riverside, Lake Elsinore, and Murrieta.

That profile matters in this quarter specifically. IE approvals under $150,000 fell 39% from a year ago, from 133 to 81, as the median loan jumped from $150,000 to $252,000. A CDFI holding a top-ten slot by loan count while writing the program's smallest checks is a read on where small-dollar credit access in the corridor now comes from.

Lendistry has approved 122 IE loans totaling $25.5 million since fiscal 2020, peaking at 29 approvals in late 2024 before pulling back through 2025. The first quarter is its most active in a year.