Skip to content
SearchSphereSource
Sign inSign up

Open Bank (SBA lending) vs Hanmi Bank

Side by Side

Open Bank (SBA lending) and Hanmi Bank, attribute by attribute
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 the FOIA loan 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. The FOIA loan file 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 the FOIA loan 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 Searchfunder or Reddit thread discusses the bank the way they discuss the searcher-known lenders, 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

Both rows were read at source: Open Bank ↗ and Hanmi Bank ↗.

Our take

Choose Open Bank when the deal is the size its own book runs at, 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 nearer its $864k average or in one of its nine states: twice the FY2025 volume at the size individual buyers actually pay, across a 619-loan six-year book, at the same 7.80% average our file prices both desks.