# First Bank of the Lake

A national SBA division lending on acquisitions.

A Missouri-chartered SBA Preferred Lender that has run a national SBA division since 2019, lending across the country with a published entrepreneurship-through-acquisition use case, 7(a) loans to $5M, and a heavy franchise practice alongside healthcare and professional-practice acquisitions.

- Category: SBA & Acquisition Lenders
- Pricing model: Custom Pricing
- Where it fits: Set Up & Fund the Search, Diligence & Close the Deal
- Website: https://www.fblake.bank

## At a Glance

Worth a [term-sheet](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/term-sheet) call on franchise and practice deals where its volume is concentrated; for an independent main-street acquisition, use it as the competing quote rather than the anchor.

- Track Record: A Missouri Preferred Lender running a national SBA division since 2019.
- 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.
  - Its 7(a), small-business and working-capital product pages each open on the sentence that it is a nationwide SBA Preferred Lender; until September 2026 only a working-capital article carried it. The bank has moved domains, and its older address publishes nothing at all.
- 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 dedicated searcher and acquisition practice, handled remotely.
  - A dedicated page headed Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition, alongside franchise and professional-practice lending pages and its own volume figures since 2020.
- Practice Lending: A practice lending program that names buying a practice.
  - Its SBA industry pages lend to dental, veterinary, optometry and chiropractic practices; the dental page names purchasing an established practice and the chiropractor page buying out a partner, and the figures they print are the SBA program's own.
- Published Terms: 7(a) loans to $5M, with a heavy franchise-acquisition practice.

## What It Costs

Loan products; no fee to engage. Rates are quoted per deal and not published. The bank cites over $2 billion in SBA loans since 2020 and ranks third most active SBA franchise lender by volume since 2023, a rank it attributes to the SBA (fblake.bank, August 2026); treat volume claims as the bank's own.

## Best For

Acquisition borrowers who want a high-volume national SBA shop with an explicit ETA appetite, especially franchise deals and practice acquisitions such as dental and veterinary

## Pros and Cons

- Pro: Publishes a dedicated [entrepreneurship-through-acquisition](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/eta) use case rather than treating [searchers](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/searcher) as an exception
- Pro: SBA [Preferred Lender](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/preferred-lender-program) status with in-house credit decisions and a national footprint
- Pro: Deep franchise practice (hundreds of concepts) plus a reputation in healthcare and practice acquisitions
- Pro: High small-dollar throughput keeps it responsive on deals big acquisition desks deprioritize
- Con: Franchise lending dominates the platform, so a [self-funded search](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/self-funded-search) on an independent business is not the core lane
- Con: No published rates, timelines, or searcher-specific terms to hold it to
- Con: The national SBA division dates to 2019, a shorter track record than the long-standing acquisition banks
- Con: Volume and ranking claims come from the bank's own marketing

## What Searchers Say

FOIA-based FY2025 roundups place it among the most active [7(a)](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/sba-7a) lenders in the country, and trade coverage notes its franchise and practice-lending niches. Searcher-community discussion is thinner than for Live Oak or Byline; sentiment is roundup-level rather than firsthand.

## Sources

- https://www.fblake.bank/first-bank-of-the-lake-sba-use-cases/entrepreneurship-through-acquisition/
- https://sbaloanindex.com/lenders/first-bank-of-the-lake/
- https://ctacquisitions.com/guides/sba-acquisition-lender-rankings-2026/

Also on this site: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/category/lender.md
Source: https://searchspheresource.com/resources/first-bank-of-the-lake
Last checked: 2026-10-03

Site index for machines: https://searchspheresource.com/llms.txt