The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Iowa District Office has announced the winners of its top lender awards for fiscal year 2021.The SBA’s Top Overall Lender in the state was Iowa Business Growth Co., which approved 46 loans under the 504 Loan program totaling $35,253,000. A loan agency based in Johnston, Iowa Business Growth was also the Top 504 Lender. The Top 7(a) program lender was Lincoln Savings Bank, which approved 35 7(a) loans totaling $21,809,100. In the 12 months ended Sept. 30, 2021, the SBA approved 476 guaranteed loans in Iowa, totaling $263.1 million. “I want to thank SBA’s participating lenders for their ongoing support of Iowa’s small business community during another challenging year for small businesses,” said Jayne Armstrong, district director of the SBA’s Iowa District Office. The amount does not include the more than $2.9 billion that Iowa lenders financed under the second round of the Payroll Protection Program during fiscal 2021, she noted. “The fact that they stepped up and financed more startups and expansions in the middle of the COVID pandemic demonstrates how critical small business is to the Iowa economy.” The complete list of all the winners in each lending category can be found at this link.