Credit box

Definition

The band of deals a lender will actually write, whatever its site says.

Why It Matters

Every SBA lender works from the same program rules, and almost none of them lend on the same deals. The box is the bank's own overlay on top of those rules. It sets a minimum size, a list of trades it will not touch, a view on goodwill, and a floor on how long the seller has owned the business. Little of it is published: a few lenders print a minimum loan size or the trades they favor, and the rest stays inside the bank. This is why the practical move is more than one lender instead of a better application, and why an early decline is usually information about the bank and not about the deal.

In numbers: A lender advertising up to $5 million whose file shows nothing above $1.8 million has a box that stops at $1.8 million.