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Open Bank (SBA lending) vs Hanmi Bank

Side by Side

AttributeOpen BankHanmi Bank
What It IsThe Los Angeles bank whose lending page does what almost no SBA desk does: shows worked examples with real numbers, 90% of purchase price financed again and again. A deep book in our file, 380 change-of-ownership loans over six years at the seventh-cheapest average rate, written at the largest average check of the community desks.A Los Angeles bank and SBA Preferred Lender that finances business acquisitions with 7(a) loans up to $5M over ten years, plus a $250k fast-review product, working from six regional offices across California, New York and New Jersey, Colorado, Washington, Virginia, and Georgia.
CategorySBA & Acquisition LendersSBA & Acquisition Lenders
Pricing ModelCustom PricingCustom Pricing
What It CostsLoan products; no fee to engage. The page publishes no rate sheet but something rarer: a dozen worked 7(a) examples with dollar figures and structures, 90% of purchase price financed in several and 100% in one on vested equity, to the $5M program maximum. Our FOIA computation shows 68 change-of-ownership loans totaling $125.7M in FY2025 at a $1.85M average, 380 such loans across six years, and a 7.80% average initial rate, seventh cheapest among the twenty-five most active.Loan products, no fee to engage. The 7(a) reaches $5,000,000 with ten-year terms on acquisitions; the smaller Simple Loan reaches $250,000 on the same term and has carried a published Prime plus 1% promotional rate, which is unusual in a category that publishes almost nothing. Standard 7(a) rates and fees are not published; confirm current terms directly.
Best ForBuyers in California, Texas, Nevada, or Washington with larger deals who want a desk that shows its structures before the first meetingA buyer in one of its six regional markets who wants a high-volume acquisition lender writing loans at the size individual buyers actually pay
Where It FitsSet Up & Fund the Search, Diligence & Close the DealSet Up & Fund the Search, Diligence & Close the Deal
Our VerdictThe strongest of the community desks reviewed today: a cheap, deep, big-check book with structures shown in public, so the first conversation starts from an example instead of a promise. If the deal sits near its branches, this is the quote to make the published-terms desks beat.A high-volume acquisition lender that the searcher conversation has not discovered; worth a term sheet alongside the usual names if you are in one of its markets.
Pros
  • Worked deal examples with real dollar figures on its own page, which is rarer than a rate sheet in this category
  • The seventh-cheapest average initial rate among our file's twenty-five most active, at 7.80%
  • A $1.85M FY2025 average and a 380-loan six-year book: big checks from a desk that has been doing this for years
  • Wrote 134 change-of-ownership loans in FY2025, fifth most in the country, computed here from the SBA's own loan file rather than taken from a ranking
  • Those loans averaged about $864,000, which is squarely the size an individual buyer pays rather than the lower-middle-market deals some volume lenders chase
  • Names business acquisition as an eligible use on its own SBA page, so a buyer is not arguing the use case from the first call
Cons
  • Twelve branches in three states plus two Washington loan offices; the relationship model thins beyond them
  • No published rates or terms despite the worked examples; the structure you see is not a quote
  • The worked examples lean real-estate-heavy, so a goodwill-heavy business purchase should ask to see its shape early
  • Publishes no rates, fees, or terms for the 7(a) itself, so the shortlist call is the only way to compare it
  • No searcher-community footprint we could verify: it does not appear in Searchfunder or Reddit threads the way the searcher-known lenders do, so there is no practitioner account of how it handles a search-fund file
  • Coverage runs from six regional offices rather than nationally, so a buyer outside those markets may find the relationship harder to build

Our take

Choose Open Bank when the deal pushes past $1.5M near its California, Texas, Nevada, or Washington offices: its $1.85M average says big checks are its lane, the worked examples on its own page show the structures, and its rate average matches its twice-the-volume rival exactly.

Choose Hanmi for a deal near $1M or in one of its nine states: twice the FY2025 volume at the size individual buyers actually pay, an average near $864k across a 619-loan six-year book, at the same 7.80% average our file prices both desks.

Put It to Work

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