Washington, Dec. 09, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The U.S. Small Business Administration announced today its most active surety companies and agencies for fiscal year (FY) 2021, which contributed to local economies as small businesses hired new employees to support their bonded contracts.
“This list of partners has shown unyielding support to the small and emerging business contractor community. Their participation in the Surety Bond Guarantee Program has helped countless firms navigate and survive the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Jermaine Perry, acting director of the Office of Surety Guarantees. “We are grateful to all our top-performing surety partners and bond agencies for supporting small businesses and the American economy.”
The SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee (SBG) Program, in direct partnership with surety companies and their agents, provides surety bond guarantees for small businesses on federal, state, local, and private projects. Commercial construction, service and supply contracts, and subcontracts are eligible if the contract requires a surety bond.
The SBA’s surety partners often go the extra mile to help small businesses, providing education about the bonding process, advice on increasing bond limits, and connections to other important business partners like construction attorneys, accountants, and CPAs.
In FY 2021, the SBA’s guaranteed bid and final bonds totaled more than $6.8 billion in overall contract value. With the work of the SBA’s top-performing surety partners and bond agencies, over 1,600 small businesses were assisted, and over 34,000 jobs were supported.
The top-performing surety partners for FY 2021 are:
- American Contractors Indemnity Company, Calif.
- United States Fire Insurance Company, Pa.
- Travelers Casualty & Surety Company, Conn.
- U. S. Specialty Insurance Company, Calif.
- Markel Insurance Company, Texas
- West Bend Mutual Insurance Company, Wis.
- United States Surety Company, Md.
- The Ohio Casualty Insurance Company, Pa.
- Contractors Bonding and Insurance Company, Wash.
- Western National Mutual Insurance Company, Ariz.
The top-performing bond agencies for FY 2021 are:
- CCI Surety, Inc., Minn.
- Nielson, Hoover and Company, Fla.
- KOG International, Inc., Pa.
- Preferred Bonding & Insurance Services, Calif.
- The Bond Exchange & Insurance Agency, Calif.
- Valley Surety Insurance Agency, Calif.
- The Fedeli Group, Ohio
- Capstone Brokerage, Inc., Nev.
- Loxme Group, Inc. N.Y.
- Thomas Sauer Bond Agency, Colo.
About the SBA’s Surety Bond Guarantee Program and Ranking System
The ranking of each surety partner and agent was determined by the number of bond guarantees they wrote through the SBG Program. The mission of the SBA’s Office of Surety Guarantees is to provide and manage surety bond guarantees for qualified small and emerging businesses in direct partnership with surety companies. The SBA helps small businesses by guaranteeing bid, performance, and payment bonds issued by participating surety companies for contracts up to $6.5 million.
The SBA can guarantee a bond for a contract up to $10 million if a federal contracting officer certifies that SBA’s guarantee is necessary for the small business to obtain bonding. The SBA also guarantees bonds under its QuickApp for contracts up to $400,000 with limited paperwork, providing approvals within hours.
For questions regarding the program, please visit the program website at www.sba.gov/osg or contact Jermaine Perry at jermaine.perry@sba.gov.
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About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration makes the American dream of business ownership a reality. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.
