“In the case of credit unions, we are seeing the continued impact of the 12.25% MBL ceiling, as well as sluggishness in credit unions' willingness to book new business,” said Rohit Arora, Biz2Credit co-founder and CEO.

Banks with more than $10 billion in assets also experienced a drop in loan approvals going from 11.3% in July to 10.9% in August. Biz2Credit said the decrease comes off an upswing in approvals during May and June.

“The issue with big banks is a combination of global credit issues and regulatory pressure to keep their underwriting standards tight so that they can meet their underlying capital ratios,” Arora said.

Meanwhile, banks with less than $10 billion in assets increased loan approvals in August to 47.8% from 47.4% in July. The figure represents the highest approval rating percentage for small banks since Biz2Credit began the index in 2011, the company said.

“The SBA lending program being pushed by small banks has increased their approval rates,” Arora said.

Alternative lenders including accounts receivable financers, merchant cash advance lenders, community development financial institutions, micro lenders, and others, also picked up the slack, approving 64.5% of loan requests, up from 64.1% in July and 6.5% higher than August 2011 approvals, Biz2Credit said.