Newtek Bank SBA loans in New York City: sizes, rates and startups

By Solomon Wiesen, editor. Updated October 2026. Editorial standards | How this site is funded

Newtek Bank’s New York City SBA lending leans toward Manhattan: 120 of its 276 NYC SBA 7(a) loans, or 43.5%, went to Manhattan businesses. In our analysis of SBA loan data, covering October 2019 through June 2026, Newtek Bank ranks sixth among NYC SBA lenders with 3.6% of city loans, a median loan of $150,000 and a median starting rate of 11.5% on loans approved since October 2023. For a borrower, it is a lender of mostly term loans across a wide size range, with a small but real share going to businesses that have not opened yet.

Why the data starts in 2023

Every Newtek Bank loan in our count was approved in fiscal 2023 or later: 35 in fiscal 2023, 87 in fiscal 2024, 71 in fiscal 2025 and 83 in the first nine months of fiscal 2026. The bank is new to SBA lending under its own name. According to an April 27, 2023 NewtekOne release, Newtek Bank, N.A. is a federally chartered, OCC-regulated bank owned by NewtekOne, Inc. (Nasdaq: NEWT); it began funding SBA 7(a) loans in April 2023 and received SBA Preferred Lender status, which lets it approve 7(a) loans under delegated authority. Before that, the group’s 7(a) lending ran through a separate subsidiary, Newtek Small Business Finance, which the release says was winding down. Loans made by that affiliate are not in this page’s count.

Boroughs and industries

Professional services lead the industry list with 59 loans, then restaurants, bars and hotels (39), retail (32), manufacturing (24) and salons, repair and personal services (20). Restaurants and manufacturers together make up about 23% of Newtek Bank’s NYC SBA loans.

Loan size, product type and rate

Only 21.7% of Newtek Bank’s NYC SBA loans went through SBA Express, so 78.3% went through the regular 7(a) process; 10.5% are revolving lines. All carry variable rates, and the median term is 120 months. The size spread is wide: the median is $150,000, but 55 loans exceeded $350,000, and 18 exceeded $1 million, which pulls the average up to $393,715.

The middle half of recent loans started between 10.5% and 11.5%. Those rates were set while prime moved between 8.50% and 6.75%, per the Federal Reserve’s prime rate series; prime was 7.00% in early October 2026.

Startups in the file

Of Newtek Bank’s 276 NYC loans, 7.6% went to startups whose loan funds would open the business, and another 6.9% to businesses two years old or younger. The remaining 84.8% went to businesses operating more than two years.

Newtek’s own site does not advertise startup lending. Its term loans page describes the product for existing, U.S.-based, for-profit businesses and asks for 2 to 3 years of tax returns. If you are opening a business, the data shows Newtek Bank has made SBA loans in that situation in NYC, but you should confirm with a lending specialist before applying.

What Newtek publishes

Newtek Bank’s lending pages describe its loans without naming the SBA program. The business lending page lists two products:

• Term loans of $5,000 to $15 million, repaid over 5 to 25 years, with “limited or no prepayment penalties,” for expansion, acquisitions, owner-occupied real estate, leasehold improvements, working capital, inventory, equipment or refinancing.
• Lines of credit from $50,000 to $5 million backed by receivables (up to an 85% advance rate) or inventory (up to 50%), each on a renewable one-year term, per the lines of credit page.

The Newtek Bank home page says you can prequalify “in less than 5 minutes with no hit to your credit score,” and notes that loans are issued by Newtek Bank, N.A. and a NewtekOne non-bank subsidiary. The phone line is 855-763-9835. The pages do not publish rates, collateral rules, fees or a document list, and do not say if you need a Newtek Bank deposit account.

The SBA rules that apply

Since most of these loans are regular 7(a) loans, the SBA’s limits matter more than Express rules. The 7(a) program goes up to $5 million. The SBA’s loan types page caps 7(a) small loans at $350,000 and says loans of $50,000 or less need no collateral; standard 7(a) loans above that carry a 75% guarantee and must be treated as fully secured. SBA Express runs to $500,000 with a 50% guarantee. Under the SBA’s terms and conditions, real estate loans can run 25 years and working capital generally 10, and variable rates are capped at base plus 3.0 to 6.5 points depending on size.

Applying

Every 7(a) borrower completes SBA Form 1919 (current version effective March 19, 2025) through the lender, and the SBA’s personal financial statement is Form 413. Newtek’s term loan page says a lending specialist handles the forms and stays with you through the process. Have your 2 to 3 years of tax returns ready, since that is the one document Newtek names.

Fit and alternatives

The NYC data fits a Manhattan business, especially a professional firm, restaurant or manufacturer, borrowing $50,000 to $350,000 as a term loan, and it leaves some room for loans above $1 million and for startups. It is a weaker fit if you want a revolving SBA line, which was about one loan in ten. For that, or if Newtek declines, compare lenders by borough, industry and size in the SBA lender finder, or look at the 19 city, state and community lenders in our NYC small business loans table.

Against a merchant cash advance

A $50,000 merchant cash advance at a 1.40 factor rate repaid by debits every business day comes to about 71% APR over twelve months, 95% over nine and 142% over six. Newtek Bank’s recent NYC median was 11.5%. Owners carrying an advance can compare the two on our SBA loan versus MCA page.

Newtek Bank and NewtekOne do not endorse this page; the figures come from our count of the SBA’s public 7(a) loan file, excluding cancelled loans.