The SBA 's annual ranking of small-business lenders was just made available--and it reveals some interesting insights.

First, to clarify, the list isn't really a ranking. It includes all the lenders that made SBA-based loans in fiscal 2010, arranged alphabetically. But the information includes the number of loans each institutions made, along with the gross total amount of loans and the portion that was SBA-approved. So you can easily figure out which lenders are on top and which ones aren't.

The winner is JP Morgan, with 3,386 loans made. The SBA-approved portion was $284,908,839. Number two, however, isn't a goliath, but rather, Superior Financial Group in Walnut Creek, Cal., a non-bank, SBA-approved lender that many small businesses and small-business advisers turn to when looking for money. It made 3,134 loans; the total SBA-approved portion came to $28,462,125.

And what about Bank of America, which just announced it's hiring 1,000 people to specialize in small-business lending? According to these numbers, it's facing a game of catch-up. The bank made 185 loans; the SBA-approved portion totaled $16,877,086.

The list is coming out a time when the SBA recently has redefined what a small business is in certain sectors, something I just wrote about . Specifically, the new definition now allows much bigger businesses to be considered small and, therefore, eligible for SBA-backed loans. For that reason, it's likely we'll see more interest among lenders in tapping small companies.

Which leads to an obvious question: Will next year's list look very different from this one? 

Here's a look at the top 10, according to number of SBA-backed loans:

JP Morgan Chase, New York, NY, 3,386

Superior Financial Group, Walnut Creek, Ca., 3,134

Wells Fargo, San Francisco, 2,446

US Bank, Minneapolis, 1,609

Huntington Bancshares, Columbus, Oh, 1,312

Manufacturers and Traders Trust, La Mesa, Ca, 863

Compass Bancshares, Birmingham, Al, 808

BB&T, Winston Salem, NC, 617

Citizens Financial Gorup, Providence, RI, 578