Decrease in surety bond guarantee fees

The U.S. Small Business Administration last week announced the first fee decrease in Surety Bond Guarantees in 12 years.

The fee decrease will be in effect for guaranteed bonds approved during fiscal year 2019, taking effect Oct. 1, 2018 and ending Sept. 30, 2019.

The Surety Bond Guarantee (SBG) program is reducing the Surety fee from 26 percent to 20 percent of the bond premium charged to the small businesses and reducing its contractor fee from $7.29 per thousand dollars of the contract amount to $6.00 per thousand dollars of the contract amount.

Under its SBG program, the SBA guarantees bid, payment and performance bonds for small and emerging contractors who cannot obtain surety bonds through regular commercial channels.

Currently, there are 34 participating sureties and over 350 active agents in the SBG program. On average, completed surety bond applications are reviewed and processed in less than two days.