May 21, 2013

AA Rating on Class A Notes from Newtek Small Business Loan Trust

NewtekOne today announced that Standard & Poor's Ratings Services recently reaffirmed its AA rating on the class A notes from Newtek Small Business Loan Trust 2010-1. Standard & Poor's stated that the affirmation reflects their view that the class A notes can withstand their 'AA' stress given their current available credit enhancement. Barry Sloane, NewtekOne President, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said, "We are pleased with S&P's reaffirmation of the AA rating on the 2010 securitization by our lending subsidiary, Newtek Small Business Finance, Inc. This securitization has been on our books for approximately 2.5 years, and this reaffirmation is testament to the quality of the loans we originate and adherence to our stringent underwriting standards." Newtek Small Business Loan Trust 2010-1 is an asset-backed securities transaction collateralized primarily by a pool of unguaranteed portions of U.S Small Business Administration Section 7(a), loans backed by commercial real estate and other collateral, such as equipment or receivables. Since this issuance in December of 2010, Newtek Small Business Finance has completed two additional asset-backed securities transaction, in 2011 and the first quarter of 2013. Guggenheim Securities acted as the placement agent for all 3 securitizations. Mr. Sloane concluded, "Our ability to securitize has contributed significantly to the 42% increase in our funded loan volume in the first quarter of 2013 over the first quarter of 2012. We have also seen an improvement in our securitization economics. In our March 2013 securitization, we improved both our long-term cost of interest by more than 150 basis points and increased securitization proceeds by between 8% and 9% compared to our previous two securitizations in 2010 and 2011. As we continue to grow our loan origination volume, we look forward to bringing future quality issuances to the market as early as the fourth quarter of 2013, or in the first quarter of 2014."