OUR BLOG

If you’ve followed us for any length of time, or if you’ve had the pleasure (!) of being a client, you know we love SBA Lending. In fact, you may know that we happily and proudly call ourselves SBA Geeks. We truly enjoy helping our bank clients meet the needs of the small businesses in their community – the businesses that are the backbone of our country’s economy.

Effective March 1st, 2026, SBA will no longer allow the use of FICO®’s Small Business Scoring Service to screen 7(a) small loans (loans up to $350,000). Instead – as has been an observable trend for over a year now – SBA is re-emphasizing that Lenders must return to traditional commercial credit analysis in alignment with how their non-SBA commercial loans are evaluated and underwritten, as outlined in the SBA SOP 50 10 8.

Lenders have always been responsible for verifying owners’ citizenship and residency according to SBA SOP 50 10 8. But beginning January 1st of 2026, and then again as of March 1st, standards have changed and are being enforced with greater precision. In short, ownership eligibility now more than ever is a key consideration for SBA compliance.

As always, NAGGL was a whirlwind of meetings, workshops, information, and saying Hello! to new and old friends. We’ll be writing more about what we learned in the coming weeks – and to start with, here are a few quick tips.