Celtic Bank
At a Glance
A strong rate-and-volume option for a straightforward deal; get a service-oriented lender's term sheet alongside it.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Loan products (no fee to engage). SBA 7(a) and combination structures from $25k to $10M; a 10% acquisition down payment, below the 30% some lenders ask; rates priced off prime, commonly Prime + 2.25% to 2.75%. Confirm current terms directly.
- Best For
- Buyers who want a high-volume SBA lender with a low down payment and will trade white-glove service for scale and rate
- In the Federal File
- 88 change-of-ownership loans in FY2025, 11th most in the country, averaging $1.4M each, at an average initial rate of 7.79%. Computed from the SBA's own loan-level data, not from anything the lender publishes.
- Track Record
- A Salt Lake City Preferred Lender and perennial top-ten 7(a) lender.
- Type
- Bank (lends directly)
- Footprint
- Nationwide.
- Approval Authority
- Says it holds SBA Preferred Lender status, so it can approve the loan itself rather than sending the file to the agency for a second look.
- A use-case page for buying a business carries it, and no program page does, so the claim sits with the use case rather than with the product a reader would look under.
- Deal Size
- $500k to $5M.
- States a floor: the smallest loan it publishes is $350k.
- The homepage states it as a range beside the term. Two named lanes sit below it, one to a hundred and fifty thousand and one from there to the floor, and the second of those names buying an existing business outright. So the floor is real and it is a routing line rather than a refusal.
- Searcher Practice
- A general SBA lending desk, handled remotely.
- A business-acquisition page carrying the acquisition product itself, its uses and its structure, whose own related links lead back to the same page. The word searcher does not appear on it.
- Published Terms
- Business acquisitions at $350k to $5M with as little as 10% down, against the 30% its own page says many lenders want.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Where Its Loans Went
344 change-of-ownership loans across 11 of the industries the loan file ranks, the largest being Gasoline Stations with Convenience Stores at 108.
- Gasoline Stations with Convenience Stores108 loans
- General Freight Trucking, Local70 loans
- Hotels (except Casino Hotels) and Motels62 loans
- Assisted Living Facilities for the Elderly27 loans
- Car Washes23 loans
- Couriers and Express Delivery Services14 loans
- All Other Specialty Trade Contractors10 loans
- Child Day Care Services9 loans
- Drycleaning and Laundry Services (except Coin-Operated)8 loans
- General Freight Trucking, Long-Distance, Truckload7 loans
The 10 largest of 11 ranked industries this lender appears in. Counts cover FY2020 through FY2025, from the SBA's loan-level file.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- A top-ten SBA 7(a) lender nationally every year since 2013 and a Preferred Lender since 2013, so it approves loans in-house without a separate SBA credit review
- Roughly $593M of SBA lending in FY2025 across a broad book, with a dedicated business-acquisition program
- A 10% acquisition down payment, well below the 30% some lenders require, plus a soft-pull prequalification that does not touch your credit
- Most of its loans carry no prepayment penalty
Cons
- Customer-service reputation is rough: a C Better Business Bureau rating, roughly 213 complaints, and Trustpilot scores near 2.5 out of 5 as of mid-2026
- Borrowers report slow closings, with some simple deals taking around four months rather than the 30 to 60 days SBA files usually run
- It does not publish APRs or a clear step-by-step process, so you are quoted per deal and comparison shopping matters
What Searchers Say
Volume and Preferred Lender status verified against SBA rankings and the bank's own acquisition page; service and closing-speed concerns come from aggregated borrower reviews (BBB, Trustpilot, third-party lender reviews) as of mid-2026.
How to Approach
Celtic Bank is a bank, so this is how that kind of lender comes in, what it weighs, and how to arrive ready.
The Typical Arc
- A prequalification on you and the target, often from the first email.
- A full application and the bank's own underwrite of the deal.
- A term sheet, then closing on the SBA's timeline, commonly two to four months.
What It Weighs
- Whether the business's cash flow covers the debt with room to spare.
- Your experience relative to the business you are buying.
- Your equity injection and how clean the financials are.
How to Prepare
- Model the payment and coverage before you call. SBA Acquisition Calculator
- Underwrite the specific deal end to end. Underwrite a Deal
- Show where every dollar comes from and goes. Sources & Uses Builder