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First Financial Bank (SBA lending) vs United Midwest Savings Bank (SBA lending)

Side by Side

AttributeFirst Financial BankUnited Midwest Savings Bank
What It IsThe El Dorado, Arkansas bank behind the cheapest average acquisition book in our file: a preferred lender writing 7(a) loans to $5 million, fully amortized with no balloons, whose page publishes the 10% minimum equity injection for change-of-ownership deals outright, and whose own book leads Arkansas's and Louisiana's acquisition top-fives.An Ohio bank running a nationwide SBA and USDA practice organized as industry desks with named lenders per vertical: medical, dental, veterinary, optometry, insurance agencies, accounting and tax firms, funeral homes, and hospitality, with buying an existing practice named as the errand its page is built around.
CategorySBA & Acquisition LendersSBA & Acquisition Lenders
Pricing ModelCustom PricingCustom Pricing
What It CostsLoan products; no fee to engage. Its page publishes what most desks keep vague: 7(a) to $5M, fixed and variable, fully amortized with no balloon payments, ten-year terms on business acquisition, and an equity injection of at least 10% of total project cost on change-of-ownership transactions. Our FOIA computation, now keyed by charter so the Ohio and Texas namesakes no longer blend in, shows 61 change-of-ownership loans totaling $85.1M in FY2025 at a 7.03% average initial rate, the cheapest in the league table, across 279 such loans in six years.Loan products; no fee to engage. The bank splits its program at $150,000, with a streamlined small-loan track below and the commercial SBA team above. Our FOIA computation shows 90 change-of-ownership 7(a) loans totaling $82.5M in FY2025, averaging near $916k at an 8.29% average initial rate, and 553 such loans across the file's six years.
Best ForBuyers in its Arkansas and Mississippi footprint, or anywhere in the Louisiana book it leads, who want the file's cheapest average pricing and a published injection floor instead of a negotiationPractice acquisitions in its named verticals, where the desk that answers has seen your kind of deal before, and smaller acquisitions that fit the streamlined under-$150k track
Where It FitsSet Up & Fund the Search, Diligence & Close the DealSet Up & Fund the Search, Diligence & Close the Deal
Our VerdictIf the deal sits in its footprint or its Louisiana book, this is the first rate call to make: the cheapest average book in our league table with the injection floor already in writing, so the negotiation starts where other banks end.The vertical-desk structure is the draw: a buyer of a dental, veterinary, insurance, accounting, or funeral business gets a lender whose desk does that deal all day, which is worth more than a rate sheet nobody publishes anyway.
Pros
  • The cheapest average initial rate in our league table, at 7.03% once its namesakes' books are split out
  • Publishes the 10% change-of-ownership equity injection on its own page, which most desks leave to the term sheet
  • Leads Arkansas's and Louisiana's acquisition top-fives in our file, at a $1.4M FY2025 average that says it works real deals
  • Industry desks with named lenders for the practice trades a searcher actually shortlists: dental, veterinary, optometry, insurance, accounting, funeral
  • Calls its accounting team a nationwide leader in financing accounting and tax firm acquisitions, on its own page
  • One of the twenty most active acquisition lenders in our FOIA file, with 553 change-of-ownership loans across six years
Cons
  • An Arkansas and Mississippi branch footprint by its own masthead; a buyer elsewhere is shopping a different desk
  • No longer among the twenty most active by loan count once the namesakes split out; the price leadership is real, the volume rank is modest
  • Branch-relationship banking rather than a built-for-remote process
  • Publishes no rates and no state list; the nationwide claim is per-vertical rather than blanket
  • Average acquisition loan near $916k in our file, so the very largest deals may be better shopped to the $5M-ceiling specialists
  • Little searcher-community commentary to weigh against its own claims

Our take

Choose First Financial when the deal sits in its Arkansas and Mississippi footprint, or the Louisiana book it leads, and rate is the fight: the cheapest average rate in our league table, with the 10% injection floor already in writing.

Choose United Midwest when you are buying a dental, veterinary, insurance, accounting, or funeral practice anywhere in the country: a desk that underwrites your trade all day beats a rate sheet nobody publishes, and its volume leads six states' top-fives in our file.

Put It to Work

Whichever side wins for you, Lender Match filters the verified lenders by your deal size and structure.