Finance and Insurance ·NAICS 522

NAICS 522 · IRS SOI 2023 · Census CBP

Credit Intermediation and Related Activities - Industry Benchmarks

$104,345/yr average annual pay, with 433 SBA loans on record for NAICS 522.

18.8%
Net margin
3.0M
Workers employed
$104,345/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$245M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Data updated July 2026

The verdict · NAICS 522

Credit Intermediation and Related Activities runs a 18.8% pre-tax net margin - above average for US industries - across 177K establishments employing 3.0M workers.

18.8%
Pre-tax net margin (IRS SOI)
3.0M
Workers employed (Census CBP)
$104,345/yr
Avg payroll / employee
$245M
SBA lending, FY20–26

Benchmarking Insights for Credit Intermediation and Related Activities

Credit Intermediation and Related Activities sits inside Finance and Insurance at a 18.8% net margin (above average for US industries), $413.3B in aggregate receipts across 91,036 returns, averaging $4.5B per establishment.

176,966 establishments employ 2,953,663 workers (16.7/location) at $104,345/yr average annual pay. Texas leads employment, followed by California and Florida.

Profit Margin

18.8%

Net income ÷ total receipts (IRS SOI)

Total Receipts

$413.3B

Annual revenue (IRS SOI)

Net Income

$77.7B

Pre-tax net income

Employment

2,953,663

Total employees (Census CBP)

Avg Payroll / Employee

$104,345/yr

Annual compensation

Establishments

176,966

Business locations

Release-over-release change

What changed from Census CBP 2022 to 2023

Employment increased by 12,259; establishment count decreased by 7,842. This comparison uses two published national Census County Business Patterns releases; suppressed fields are omitted rather than estimated.

Where each dollar of Credit Intermediation and Related Activities revenue goes

Workforce scale

Credit Intermediation and Related Activities margin vs national reference points

Credit Intermediation and Related Activities net margin 62.7%
Cross-industry median (5%)

p25/median/p75 = 3%/5%/8%

Business Structure Breakdown

How businesses in this industry are legally structured (IRS SOI)

C Corporation
41,272 returns 45%

Margin: 18.7% · Receipts: $409.7B

Sole Proprietorship
49,764 returns 55%

Margin: 30.0% · Receipts: $3.6B

Financial Detail

Total Tax Returns Filed
91,036
Avg Receipts per Business
$4.5B
Annual Payroll (Total)
$308.2B
Avg Employees per Establishment
16.7

Sub-Industries

Industry Profit Margin
Activities Related to Credit Intermediation

NAICS 5223

 12.2%
Depository Credit Intermediation

NAICS 5221

 14.7%
Nondepository Credit Intermediation

NAICS 5222

 8.5%

Top States by Employment

State Employment
Texas 294,576
California 281,751
Florida 178,144
Illinois 119,475
Ohio 114,437
Pennsylvania 93,857
Arizona 92,896
Georgia 84,713
New Jersey 78,232
Missouri 67,958

Showing top 10 of 51 states

SBA Lending Activity

SBA FY2020–2026

SBA Loans Approved

433

Total Loan Volume

$245M

Avg Loan Size

$566K

Jobs Supported

4,260

Program Breakdown

7(a) 361 (83%)
504 72 (17%)

Top SBA Lender

BayFirst National Bank

31 loans in this industry

New Business Share

15.7% of borrowers were new/startup businesses

Annual Lending Trend (7 yrs)

2020
51
2021
84
2022
86
2023
69
2024
50
2025
88
2026
5

View SBA lending rankings →

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the average revenue for Credit Intermediation and Related Activities?
$413.3B in total annual receipts across all Credit Intermediation and Related Activities businesses. Average per business: $4.5B.
How profitable is Credit Intermediation and Related Activities?
18.8% net profit margin, above average for US industries.
How many businesses are in Credit Intermediation and Related Activities?
176,966 business establishments. Together they employ 2,953,663 workers.
What is the average payroll per employee in Credit Intermediation and Related Activities?
$104,345/yr average annual pay per employee. Businesses average 16.7 employees per establishment.
Which states have the most Credit Intermediation and Related Activities employment?
Texas leads with 294,576 workers. California (281,751) and Florida (178,144) round out the top three.
How much SBA lending does Credit Intermediation and Related Activities receive?
Credit Intermediation and Related Activities businesses received 433 SBA loans totaling $245 million between FY2020 and FY2026. The average loan size was $566K. These loans supported 4,260 jobs at origination. Most lending (83%) came through the SBA 7(a) program.

Comparable industry benchmarks

These links are calculated from the current national dataset. They are comparison paths, not recommendations or evidence that businesses operate alike.

Closest reported net margins

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported IRS pre-tax margin.

Closest workforce scale

Same NAICS detail level, ordered by the smallest difference in reported Census employment.

Benchmarking Credit Intermediation and Related Activities

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.

Sources: IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) Business Tax Statistics · Census Bureau County Business Patterns 2023

NAICS 522 · Data year: 2023

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released its 2023 County Business Patterns dataset in June 2025, PlainBizBench benchmarks 2,002 U.S. industries against Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income data. See our methodology for the full compilation process.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns / SUSB Industry employment scale, payroll, and firm-size benchmarks · 2023

Every figure on PlainBizBench is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page aggregates profit-margin, payroll, entity-type, and SBA-lending benchmarks for this industry, live from the dataset. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

Disclaimer: Public IRS/Census data, not financial or tax advice. See our full disclaimer.