The world has been experiencing a failing economy now for a couple of years and regardless if you are in manufacturing, service, distribution or anything else that relies on one of these industries to survive, you have been affected by the cost cuts and staff reductions.
As in the NY Times on March 15, 2009 ”It’s a huge step in the right direction,” Giovanni Coratolo, director of Small Business Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said Saturday. ”In this economy, having the least amount of risk for banks will incentivize banks to lend to small businesses. A lot of small businesses will benefit from this.” [http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/03/15/washington/AP-Obama-Small-Businesses.html?hp]
So what is this going to mean? The SBA guarantees loans up to $20 billion a year in the US economy and yet is projected to approve less than $10 billion in 2009. What does this mean? It means that companies that want to get a SBA loan are not getting approved. The affect of additional funding to the SBA is not really going to do anything if we are currently using less than 50% of the available funding. How will this assist the economy?
So what is the plan? Offsetting some of the risk for the Lenders of the SBA loans and Temporarily reducing some of the fees on some of the SBA Loan programs. The risk offsetting tactic will be to increase some of the guarantees on the SBA Loans that are written.
It is yet to be seen as to whether this a token gesture or an actual action plan for them we will be able determine this in a few months when we can calculate what type of effect this has had on small business being able to access these funds.
Now Business Loans are all based on perceived risk, and every lender has their own guidelines and thresholds for risk, so this will vary depending on who you talk to, but lets assume the typical lender is comfortable with a 5% default rate on their loans. And the new plan from the US Government will increase their guarantee on the SBA Loans they write by 5% of the total loan amount from 85% to 90%. Now what is the actual default rate on Business Loans today? That is about 20%. So, a 5% increase in the guarantees will not come close to offsetting the lender risk. I could get into the detailed calculations of what the actual risk is, but it is pointless as we are not even close to what is acceptable.
On the bright side of things though, this is an initial attempt by Obama to help small business, something that has been a long time coming. As with the major corporations, there has been much negotiation and debate on what to do, so we will have to keep an eye on the progress and analyze the effect to determine future actions.
There are so many alternatives to SBA or bank loans today that are offered by Commercial Finance Brokers as they access to funds for Accounts Receivable Financing, Export Factoring, Purchase Order Finance, Commercial Equipment Loans and Commercial Real Estate Mortgages. Be sure to do you checking around into the various options available to you as there is a loan available for most circumstances if you have the right Finance Broker.
Wade Henderson is a recognized Expert in the Business Finance World with over 13 years Experience in the Commercial Lending Field and a strong reputation for getting the deal done. Visit his Business Finance Website to put his experience to work for you.
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