Disclosures

What we are

FundingForBusinesses.com is an independent, advertising-supported research publisher operated by FIH LLC, New York. We are not a bank, lender, loan broker, or financial advisor. We do not originate, arrange, negotiate, or service financing, we do not accept applications, and we are never compensated by a business seeking capital.

In practical terms: we publish research derived from public federal data and editorial explainers about how business financing works. When we think a lender is worth looking at, we link to them. If we have a paid relationship with that lender, we say so on the page, next to the link, before you click it.

What we do not do

• We do not lend. We have no capital, no credit facility, and no lending licence.
• We do not broker. We do not arrange, negotiate, place, or procure financing for anyone, and we accept no fee from any business seeking capital - which is the compensation that defines a loan broker under most state statutes.
• We do not take applications. There is no form on this site that asks for a Social Security number, an EIN, bank credentials, revenue figures, a credit score, or a phone number. The only things we ever collect are an email address, if you subscribe to the newsletter, and whatever you choose to put in a message, if you write to us through the contact form. Nothing else, and nothing about your finances.
• We do not sell leads. We have no leads to sell. Nothing you enter into a calculator on this site is transmitted anywhere - the calculators run entirely in your browser.
• We do not give advice. Nothing here is financial, legal, tax, or investment advice. We do not know your business, and general information is not a substitute for a professional who does.

How we make money

Three ways, in order of size. First, referral fees: when you click through to a lender we partner with and apply on their site, that lender may pay us. Second, advertising and sponsored placements, which are always visibly labelled. Third, in future, display advertising and newsletter sponsorship.

As of this writing we have one monetized partner relationship: SmartBiz (approved referral partner. we may be paid when a reader we refer completes an application.). The full and current list is maintained on the advertiser disclosure page.

Compensation does not affect our data, our rankings, or which lenders we cover. Every league table on this site is computed from the SBA’s own loan-level file using a formula published on our methodology page. A lender cannot buy a higher position, and cannot pay to have an unflattering number removed. Paid placement occupies its own visually distinct lane and is labelled “Sponsored”.

Where our numbers come from

Loan statistics on this site are derived from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s public 7(a) and 504 FOIA extracts, which record every loan the agency has guaranteed. This is federal government data in the public domain. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or acting on behalf of the SBA or any other government agency, and nothing here is an official publication of the United States government.

We restate and aggregate that data; we do not alter it. Where we have had to make a judgement - normalising inconsistent lender names, deciding which loan cohorts are old enough to measure charge-offs against - the judgement is documented in the methodology. Where the data is too thin to say something true, we print a dash rather than a number.

What the data cannot tell you

Historical approvals describe what lenders have done, not what they will do. A lender’s median rate across fifteen years is not a quote. A charge-off rate describes the credit box a lender chose to underwrite, not the quality of its service. None of it predicts what any particular business will be offered, and none of it accounts for the terms that often matter most - covenants, collateral, personal guarantees, and prepayment penalties.

Your privacy in one paragraph

We collect an email address if you subscribe, and standard anonymised analytics. We do not sell or share personal information, we honour Global Privacy Control signals, and we have no phone number for you because we never ask for one. The detail is on the privacy page, and you can opt out of everything at your privacy choices.

Accuracy, and how to tell us we are wrong

We check our figures against the SBA’s own published activity reports before release, but this is a large dataset restructured by software, and software has bugs. If a number here looks wrong - particularly on a page about your own institution - write to us at hello@fundingforbusinesses.com and we will check it against the source file and correct it if we are wrong. We do not remove accurate information because someone dislikes it.

Who publishes this

FundingForBusinesses.com is published by FIH LLC, New York. You can reach us at hello@fundingforbusinesses.com or through the contact page.