Eastern Bank (SBA lending)
At a Glance
The desk that shows you the whole machine, every spread and every fee tier on the page. Read the schedule for what it is, the program's ceiling, and negotiate from it; the file says the acquisition practice is there even though the uses list never mentions it.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, Loan products; no fee to engage. The 7(a) page publishes what almost nobody does, a complete schedule by loan size: Prime plus 6.5% to $50,000, plus 6% to $250,000, plus 4.5% to $350,000, plus 3% above that, fixed or variable. The guarantee-fee tiers sit beside it, zero on loans to $1 million. Read it knowing the schedule matches the program's maximum allowable spreads, so the candor is about the ceiling rather than a discount; the shelf's published-quote desks show what beating the ceiling looks like. The FOIA loan file places it third in Massachusetts with 51 and second in Rhode Island with 11 change-of-ownership loans across the file's six years. Its own banner, number one SBA lender in Massachusetts seventeen years running, is a total-count claim built mostly on smaller loans.
- Best For
- New England buyers who want the region's most practiced SBA operation with the whole fee mechanics in writing, and will negotiate down from the ceiling the page states
- Track Record
- Third in Massachusetts with 51 and second in Rhode Island with 11 change-of-ownership loans across the file's six years; the seventeen-year number-one banner is total count, not the acquisition cut.
- Type
- Bank (lends directly)
- Footprint
- Three states in its own words, eastern Massachusetts, southern and coastal New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. It lends beyond the states it names, so one it does not name is worth asking about rather than ruling out.
- 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.
- Its SBA hub says its experience processing and servicing SBA-guaranteed loans earned it the preferred lender designation, under a banner calling it the number one SBA lender in Massachusetts. The 7(a) page this shelf holds says none of it, which is why the row read silent for as long as it did.
- Deal Size
- $500k to $5M.
- Publishes no floor. Most of this shelf gives a ceiling that is really the agency's own cap, and no minimum at all.
- Searcher Practice
- A general SBA lending desk, branch-driven.
- Published Terms
- The whole 7(a) schedule published by size band, Prime plus 6.5% down to plus 3% above $350,000, guarantee-fee tiers beside it; the schedule matches the program's maximum allowable spreads.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Publishes the complete rate and guarantee-fee schedule by loan size on the page, candor almost no bank matches
- A Preferred Lender since 2001, and number one in Massachusetts by total 7(a) count seventeen years running by its own newsroom
- Third in Massachusetts's and second in Rhode Island's change-of-ownership top fives in the FOIA loan file, so the acquisition practice is real
- Eligibility, size standards, and ineligible businesses stated in plain lists a first-time buyer can check alone
Cons
- The published schedule is the program's maximum allowable spreads, a ceiling rather than a quote; treat it as the number to negotiate down from
- The 7(a) page's own uses list never names business acquisition, so lead the first call by asking for the acquisition desk; the SBA hub above it does name recent acquisitions, which is where to point a banker who says otherwise
- The seventeen-year number-one banner is total loan count, mostly smaller loans; the acquisition book ranks third in its home state in the FOIA loan file
- No lending-area list is published and no Searchfunder or Reddit thread discusses the bank, so reach and search-fund handling are both first-call questions
What Searchers Say
The rate schedule, guarantee-fee tiers, eligibility lists, and Preferred Lender history are its own pages'; the seventeen-year number-one-in-Massachusetts claim is its own newsroom's and is a total-count figure. The published spreads match the program's maximum allowable pricing tiers, stated in the row rather than left to imply a discount. The FOIA loan file independently places it third in Massachusetts and second in Rhode Island for change-of-ownership loans across the file's six years. Its pages sit behind a bot challenge; plain fetches see only the challenge shell, and the browser recipe reads them fine.
How to Approach
Eastern Bank (SBA lending) 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