If you are shopping an SBA 7(a) or conventional commercial loan in New Hampshire, the bank you call first matters more than most borrowers think. A lender that already writes a lot of commercial credit and sits in your state is structurally likelier to say yes than a national name passing through. This page ranks the New Hampshire-headquartered banks doing the most commercial lending right now, using public Q1 2026 FFIEC call-report data. It is the open-book version of what the paid report does with far more inputs.
New Hampshire runs a lean bank roster, a few community lenders serving a no-income-tax economy that keeps pulling small business across the Massachusetts line.
The 8 most active commercial lenders in New Hampshire
Ranked by commercial and industrial (C&I) loans outstanding, Q1 2026. Bank names link to the live BankingLens scorecard.
| # | Bank | City | Assets | C&I share | ROA | Fit notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Primary Bank | Bedford | $743M | 19.5% | 1.31% | Small community bank, a steady commercial book. CRE-heavy book. |
| 2 | Merrimack County Savings Bank | Concord | $1.4B | 8.9% | 0.53% | Local commercial lender, a modest C&I share. |
| 3 | Walden Mutual Bank | Concord | $182M | 52.6% | 0.01% | Small community bank, heavy C&I concentration. Thin current returns. |
| 4 | Savings Bank of Walpole | Walpole | $849M | 6.5% | 0.79% | Small local lender, a modest C&I share. |
| 5 | Claremont Savings Bank | Claremont | $620M | 6.7% | 0.35% | Small community bank, a modest C&I share. |
| 6 | Millyard Bank, the | Nashua | $312M | 12.3% | 0.63% | Small local lender, a steady commercial book. CRE-heavy book. |
| 7 | First Seacoast Bank | Dover | $589M | 5.1% | -0.34% | Small community bank, a modest C&I share. Thin current returns. |
| 8 | Profile Bank | Rochester | $310M | 7.4% | 0.28% | Small local lender, a modest C&I share. Thin current returns. |
Assets and ratios are Q1 2026 FFIEC call-report figures. ROA is annualized return on assets. A bank's headquarters city is shown; many lend statewide and beyond.
C&I lending muscle, ranked
Commercial and industrial loans outstanding for the top 8 New Hampshire-HQ lenders, Q1 2026. This is the single number our ranking leans on hardest.
How we ranked these
Three steps, all of them transparent. First, we took every bank headquartered in New Hampshire. Second, we loosened the usual 10 percent C&I cutoff to 5 percent here, because New Hampshire has a shallow commercial-banking bench and a stricter filter would leave too short a list (a bank that is 90 percent home mortgages is not your SBA lender, regardless of size). Of the qualifying banks, 8 cleared that bar. Third, we ranked them by C&I loan dollars outstanding, which already blends balance-sheet size with how committed a bank is to commercial credit, and kept the top 8.
This is an honest, simplified proxy. It does not see a bank's actual SBA 7(a) origination volume (that lives in SBA FOIA data, not the call report), its appetite for your industry, or whether it funded forty SBA loans last quarter or zero. The $49 Borrower Assist report folds all of that in and ranks against your specific deal, not just your state. That is the part worth paying for.
What New Hampshire looks like for a borrower
New Hampshire runs a lean bank roster, a few community lenders serving a no-income-tax economy that keeps pulling small business across the Massachusetts line.
On the numbers: New Hampshire's 16 headquartered banks carry $16.6B in assets between them, the largest being Mascoma Bank of Lebanon at $3.0B. The median bank keeps 5.0% of its loan book in C&I credit, which is the pool the table below ranks.
None of that tells you which of these banks will fund your specific deal. A $400,000 restaurant acquisition and a $4M owner-occupied warehouse purchase have different optimal lender lists even in the same state, and the ranking above does not split by loan size, industry, or collateral. Treat it as your starting shortlist, not your final answer.
How to use this list
- Start with the bank near you that has the strongest commercial profile, not just the closest branch. A lender with a real C&I book understands your deal faster.
- Ask for the SBA or commercial lending group directly. The general line routes business deals slowly.
- Have a one-page summary ready: use of funds, cash flow, collateral, owner credit, timeline. Banks decide whether to engage in the first ninety seconds.
- Run two banks in parallel, not five. Two real conversations close a loan; five waste everyone's time.
Hero photo: The Boston skyline by jacob Licht on Unsplash, used here as a regional editorial image for New Hampshire.