Small business and small farm loans at U.S. banks and thrifts increased last year by $18.91 billion to $671.87 billion, the highest annual mark since 2009. However, the proportion of small business and small farm loans to total loans and leases has been consistently decreasing over the years and hit 6.9% as of Dec. 31, 2017, down 11 basis points from year-end 2016 and 279 basis points since 2009.
Total loans and leases, on the other hand, have increased to $9.721 trillion as of Dec. 31, 2017, up 4.5% year over year and 33.5% since 2009.
Small business and small farm loans at Wells Fargo Bank NA fell 1.7% last year to $37.47 billion, but the company was still the nation's largest small business loan holder at the end of the year. The other three Big Four banks – Bank of America NA, JPMorgan Chase Bank NA and Citibank NA – had the second-, third- and fifth-largest small business and farm portfolios, respectively, as of Dec. 31, 2017.
Citibank increased its small business/small farm portfolio by 58.4% last year to $13.30 billion as of Dec. 31, 2017. However, small business and farm loans still only accounted for 2.1% of Citi's total loan book at the end of the year.
First-Citizens Bank & Trust Co., which had the 13th-largest small business and farm loan portfolio, had the highest concentration of these loans among the top 20 lenders, at 24.6% as of Dec. 31, 2017. Still, that marked a 2-percentage-point decline year over year for the Raleigh, N.C.-based bank.

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