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.
- Track Record
- Fifth by change-of-ownership loan count in FY2025, a Preferred Lender.
- Type
- Bank (lends directly)
- Footprint
- Nine states: California, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Washington, Georgia. 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.
- The claim is real and it is the thinnest of the thirty. The words run backwards, a preferred SBA lender rather than an SBA Preferred Lender, the program is never named, and the sentence appears once across sixty pages. It carries the delegation benefit, which is why it counts, but a stricter bar than this one would exclude it.
- 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.
- An SBA lending page carrying the 7(a) and 504 programs beside the bank's own lending focus, written for a business that already exists rather than for the person trying to buy one.
- Published Terms
- 7(a) to $5M over ten years on an acquisition; a $250k fast-review product.
- Roadmap Stages
- 3. Set Up & Fund the Search5. Diligence & Close the Deal
Where Its Loans Went
524 change-of-ownership loans across 9 of the industries the loan file ranks, the largest being Beer, Wine, and Liquor Retailers at 234.
- Beer, Wine, and Liquor Retailers234 loans
- Full-Service Restaurants102 loans
- Limited-Service Restaurants73 loans
- Convenience Retailers39 loans
- Supermarkets and Other Grocery Retailers (except Convenience Retailers)19 loans
- Coin-Operated Laundries and Drycleaners18 loans
- Snack and Nonalcoholic Beverage Bars16 loans
- Drycleaning and Laundry Services (except Coin-Operated)13 loans
- Car Washes10 loans
Counts cover FY2020 through FY2025, from the SBA's loan-level file.
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 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
- 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.
How to Approach
Hanmi Bank 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