CeoCult · Business funding tool · SBA data as of 30 September 2026

How have SBA loans to your franchise or industry turned out?

Across 1,168,658 SBA 7(a) loans approved from fiscal 2000 to 2021, 15.6% were charged off by the lender. Among the 602 franchise brands with 30 or more loans at least five years old, the share runs from 0% to 73%, and the middle half of brands sit between 3% and 22%. Type a brand or an industry to see its own record. These are loans, not ratings of brands: a franchisee's loan says nothing on its own about the franchisor.

Try one

Dunkin DonutsFranchise brand · 604 loans
9%of seasoned loans charged off
  1. Dunkin Donuts appears on 604 SBA-guaranteed 7(a) loans approved from fiscal 2000 to 2013, $364.9 million in gross approvals.
  2. Of 604 loans approved in fiscal 2000 to 2013 (at least five years old), 53 (8.8%) were charged off by the lender, against 20.2% across all 7(a) loans approved in those same years.
  3. A charge-off is a loan the lender wrote off. It is not a statement about the borrower, the brand or the franchisor, and it does not predict how a new loan will turn out.
0%18%Fiscal 2000: 1 of 26 loans charged off (3.8%)Fiscal 2001: 2 of 31 loans charged off (6.5%)Fiscal 2002: 3 of 58 loans charged off (5.2%)Fiscal 2003: 12 of 65 loans charged off (18.5%)Fiscal 2004: 11 of 75 loans charged off (14.7%)Fiscal 2005: 15 of 103 loans charged off (14.6%)Fiscal 2006: 1 of 28 loans charged off (3.6%)Fiscal 2007: 3 of 35 loans charged off (8.6%)Fiscal 2008: 3 of 21 loans charged off (14.3%)Fiscal 2009: 0 of 24 loans charged off (0.0%)Fiscal 2010: 1 of 34 loans charged off (2.9%)Fiscal 2011: 1 of 38 loans charged off (2.6%)Fiscal 2012: 0 of 40 loans charged off (0.0%)Fiscal 2013: 0 of 26 loans charged off (0.0%)2000200220042006200820102012
share of this group's loans charged off, by approval year (years with 10+ loans)all 7(a) loans, same year

US Small Business Administration, 7(a) FOIA loan data as of 30 September 2026. SBA-guaranteed 7(a) loans only, aggregated; no borrower or lender is shown. SBA open data.

Not financial, legal or franchise advice. This page reports what the SBA's loan file records for SBA-guaranteed loans. A charge-off rate is not a rating of a brand or an industry, it does not predict a new loan, and a franchisee's loan is not a measure of the franchisor. Read the franchise's disclosure document and talk to a lender or an adviser before you borrow.

Compiled and checked by Vincent Wesley Couey (ORCID 0009-0005-6869-308X) from the SBA 7(a) FOIA loan data, as of 30 September 2026. Not an official source.

How do you read a loan record for a franchise or industry?

You read it as loans by approval year, not as a score.

  1. Read how many loans the SBA's file records and over which years.
  2. Read only the loans old enough to judge: approved at least five fiscal years ago. Newer loans are shown as counts.
  3. Compare the share charged off with all 7(a) loans approved in the same years, which the page states.
  4. Check that 30 or more seasoned loans stand behind any share. Fewer are not given a rate.
  5. Treat the result as one input beside the franchise's disclosure document, current franchisees and a lender.

Which franchise brands have the most SBA loans on record?

The brands with the most SBA 7(a) loans that are old enough to judge are mostly restaurant and retail chains. The table shows the ten largest by loan count; a share is a count of loans and not a verdict on the brand.

Franchise brandSeasoned loansCharged offShare
Subway Sandwich Shop3,0021856.2%
Quiznos2,00357228.6%
Cold Stone Creamery, Inc.80827734.3%
Mail Boxes Etc. Usa6678713.0%
Dunkin Donuts604538.8%
Dairy Queen5836411.0%
Subway5545910.7%
Sports Clips440204.5%
Matco Tools (Rent Tools)41714835.5%
Curves For Women4037919.6%

Loans approved in fiscal 2000 to 2021, from the SBA's 7(a) FOIA data as of 30 September 2026. National share across all 7(a) loans in those years: 15.6%.

What is the most common mistake when reading a charge-off rate?

The most common mistake reads a loan statistic as a franchise rating. The two measure different things.

The misreading

"This brand has a 29% charge-off share, so the franchise is a bad investment."

The fix

Read it as what happened to the loans lenders made to that brand's franchisees in those years, under that period's economy and lending rules. Then read the franchise disclosure document and call current and former franchisees. the FTC consumer guide to buying a franchise explains what to ask for.

Can you put this check on your own site?

Any brand or industry can be shown on another site as a self-sizing panel, free with the source line left in place.

<div data-sba-loan-check data-key="dunkin-donuts-brand-25650"></div> <script async src="https://ceocult.com/tools/sba-loan-outcome-check/embed.js"></script>

Set data-key to the result's key, the last part of its page address.

Questions people ask about SBA loan outcomes

How do I see how SBA loans to a franchise brand have turned out?

Type the brand's name into the check. It shows how many SBA-guaranteed 7(a) loans the SBA's file records for it, the share of the loans old enough to judge that the lender charged off, and every approval year, against all 7(a) loans approved in the same years.

What does charged off mean?

A charge-off is a loan the lender has written off as unlikely to be repaid in full. The SBA's file records the status and the amount charged off. A lender can recover part of a charged-off loan later, and the amount charged off is not the final loss.

Does a high charge-off share mean a franchise is a bad buy?

No. The check reports loans, not franchises. The loans belong to individual franchisees, were made by lenders under SBA rules, and say nothing on their own about the franchisor, the locations or the economy in the years the loans ran. Read the franchise's disclosure document and speak to current and former franchisees.

Why are recent loans not given a charge-off share?

A loan's outcome depends on its age. A loan approved last year cannot yet have been paid off or charged off in most cases, so comparing it with an older loan would be unfair. Shares are shown only for loans approved at least five fiscal years ago, and only where 30 or more such loans exist.

Why does a brand appear under two names?

The SBA assigns a franchise code to each franchise directory entry, and a brand can have more than one code or have been renamed. The check shows each code as the SBA lists it and does not merge them.

Does this include every business loan?

No. Only loans guaranteed under the SBA 7(a) program appear. Loans made without an SBA guarantee, and the SBA's 504 and microloan programs, are not in this check.

Where does the data come from?

The SBA's public 7(a) FOIA loan data on data.sba.gov, as of 30 September 2026. The check never shows a borrower's name or address or a lender's name.

Can I put this check on my own website?

Yes. The embed code on this page shows any franchise or industry as a self-sizing panel, free to use with the source line left in place.

How was the check built and checked?

The check was built from the SBA's public 7(a) FOIA loan files under a method written and hashed before any rate was published. Every row lands in one status or is counted as excluded, a separate reader recomputes the counts for a random sample of groups from the raw rows, and no borrower, lender or address appears in any output. The same code produces the result on this page, on each result's page and in the embed. What the independent check found. Further reading: the SBA 7(a) loan program; SBA open data; the SBA 7(a) FOIA loan data; 13 CFR Part 120 on SBA business loans; the FTC Franchise Rule compliance guide; the FTC consumer guide to buying a franchise; the SBA guide to buying a franchise; the Census Bureau NAICS page; SBA Lender Match; SBA local assistance.

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