Equifax’s December 2025 Small Business Lending Index showed nominal small business lending volumes rose 10.4% from November but fell 3.5% from a year earlier, while credit quality remained broadly stable with lower short-term delinquencies and a drop in defaults. In industry results, lending declined month over month in five of 17 tracked sectors and weakened most in Information and in Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting, while year-over-year gains were led by Finance and Insurance and declines were steepest in Information. Default pressure increased in a handful of industries, with notable year-over-year rises in Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction and in Agriculture, even as overall defaults edged down.

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