SBA preferred lender (PLP)

Definition

A bank the SBA lets approve and close 7(a) loans in-house.

Why It Matters

It is why the searcher-favorite banks are nearly all preferred lenders. A PLP can commit and close weeks faster than a bank that routes every file through the SBA, and on a deal with a financing contingency and a closing clock, those weeks are the whole difference.

In numbers: A PLP bank approves a clean $1.2M change-of-ownership loan on its own authority in days; the same file at a non-delegated bank waits in the SBA's own queue behind everyone else's.