Hanmi Bank
At a Glance
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.
- Pricing
- Custom Pricing, 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 For
- A buyer in one of its six regional markets who wants a high-volume acquisition lender writing loans at the size individual buyers actually pay
- In the Federal File
- 134 change-of-ownership loans in FY2025, 5th most in the country, averaging $864k each, at an average initial rate of 7.8%. Computed from the SBA's own loan-level data, not from anything the lender publishes.
- Roadmap Stages
- 2. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Pros and Cons
Pros
- 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
- A Preferred Lender, which means it approves inside the bank rather than sending the file to the SBA for a second credit review
- Publishes a promotional rate on its small-loan product, which is rare in a category where almost nobody publishes anything
Cons
- 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
- The fast-review product caps at $250,000, well under a typical acquisition, so the speed it advertises does not apply to most deals
What Searchers Say
Acquisition volume and average loan size are computed here from the SBA 7(a) loan-level file, so they are the government's numbers rather than the bank's. Product terms and Preferred Lender status are from the bank's own SBA lending page. The absence of practitioner discussion is stated as an absence, not as a mark against it.
Put It to Work
The Lender Match fit page lays out this lender's fit and how to approach it.