The U.S. Small Business Administration has issued four final rules in the Federal Register, increasing the size standards for small businesses in 70 industries, including finance.
The changes affect four North American Industry Classification System sectors and one subsector: agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting (Sector 11), finance and insurance (Sector 52), management of companies and enterprises (Sector 55), arts, entertainment, and recreation (Sector 71) and support services for mining (Subsector 213). The size standards define the maximum size a firm can be and still be considered a small business. The revised standards reflect changes in marketplace conditions and public comments that SBA received to the proposed rules.
The new size standards will enable more businesses in these sectors to obtain or retain small business status. They will also give federal agencies a larger pool of small businesses from which to choose for their procurement programs and make more small businesses eligible for the SBA’s loan programs.
The SBA increased size standards for businesses in 11 industries in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting sector. More than 7,800 additional firms will qualify as small under these new size standards and become eligible for the SBA’s loan and federal procurement programs.
The SBA also increased size standards for 36 industries for firms in the finance and insurance sector and two industries in the management of companies and enterprises sector. The SBA changed the basis for measuring size from assets to annual revenues for the international trade financing industry and deleted the Real Estate Investment Trusts from its table of size standards. More than 7,400 additional businesses will qualify as small under the new size standards and become eligible for SBA's loan and federal procurement programs.
Size standards for 17 industries were also increased for firms in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector. More than 1,450 additional firms will qualify as small under these new size standards and become eligible for SBA's loan and federal procurement programs.
The four final rules will be effective July 22, 2013.
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