Deterioration

Cancellations and delays rose together in FY2025

Cancellation rate and median days to funding, by approval year.

FY2023 was the cleanest year of the period on both measures. Two years later the cancellation rate is 70% higher and the median file takes nearly twice as long to fund. Recent approvals are partly censored, but the median-days series is computed only on loans that did disburse and is not subject to that effect.

16.55%FY2025 cancellation rate, up from 9.73% in FY2023
21 daysFY2025 median time to fund, up from 11
$17.9Bof approvals cancelled across the five years
Source: Analysis of SBA 7(a) FOIA loan-level data (as of 31 March 2026), FY2021–FY2025 approvals. Cancelled approvals retained. Published by sba-feasibility-study.com.