# @forbes on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DMQRQXeO_0v
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/32477639-forbes-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/fec8336c27.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-07-18T15:30:09.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Forbes (@Forbes) — https://gondola.cc/Forbes

## Caption

If small business is the beating heart of the American’s $30 trillion economy then it might be surprising to find out that the lifeblood it counts in the form of funding via loans, comes not from Wall Street’s mega-#banks like JPMorgan, Wells Fargo and Bank of America, but from a tiny branchless bank in #Wilmington North Carolina, just seven miles from Michael Jordan's boyhood home.

Founded in 2008, Live Oak Bancshares, has 1,053 employees, $14 billion in assets, and a $1.5 billion market capitalization. Since 2017, it has issued $15.4 billion in government-backed 7(a) loans, more than any other bank in the country including the aforementioned #WallStreet heavyweights. 

The 7(a) program is the Small Business Administration’s flagship offering, designed to help small businesses that might not qualify for conventional credit. Live Oak’s average loan is just $1 million, chump change for bigger, brand name competitors, but the lender does around $2 billion a year in #SBA #loans, plus another $3 billion in conventional #smallbusiness loans.

Read more at the link in our bio. (Photo: Shawn Hubbard for Forbes)

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## Tags

wilmington, banks, sba, smallbusiness, loans, wallstreet

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