# Stearns Bank (SBA lending)

A nationwide SBA Preferred Lender.

A nationwide SBA Preferred Lender with one of the larger 7(a) practices in the country, active in business-acquisition lending and equipment finance, with a division offering a streamlined small-dollar 7(a) product for loans the big acquisition desks deprioritize.

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

## At a Glance

A credible additional [term sheet](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/term-sheet), and worth a first call on smaller deals that the acquisition-specialist banks pass over.

- Track Record: A nationwide Preferred Lender with one of the larger 7(a) practices in the country.
- 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.
  - An FAQ accordion at the foot of the SBA page carries it, and answers the question in the plainest words any of these thirty use: the designation means the bank approves and closes without going to the agency.
- 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, handled remotely.
  - A business-acquisition loan page carrying the product, its uses and its terms, sitting under a front page about the bank's small-business lending generally. Neither names a search or the person running one.
- Practice Lending: A practice lending program that names buying a practice.
  - Its optometry and veterinary pages offer practice loans for acquiring a practice, construction, expansion and real estate beside an equipment finance team; neither prints a figure.
- Published Terms: A streamlined small-dollar 7(a) product for the loans bigger banks skip.

## What It Costs

Loan products; no fee to engage. Rates are quoted per deal and not published. FOIA-based FY2025 acquisition-lender roundups place Stearns in the top ten by volume; treat third-party rankings as directional.

## Best For

A competing term sheet on standard acquisition deals, and smaller loans where its streamlined small-dollar product reaches deals specialist acquisition banks often will not prioritize

## Pros and Cons

- Pro: SBA [Preferred Lender](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/preferred-lender-program): credit decisions made in-house rather than routed through the SBA
- Pro: Nationwide reach with a long-standing SBA practice beyond any single region
- Pro: A streamlined small-dollar [7(a)](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/sba-7a) product through its lending division, covered by trade press, serving the underbanked small end
- Pro: Top-ten 7(a) acquisition volume in FY2025 FOIA-based roundups
- Con: No dedicated [searcher](https://searchspheresource.com/glossary/searcher) or acquisition practice page, so expect to explain search-style structures
- Con: Acquisition lending sits alongside large equipment-finance and small-dollar businesses; its acquisition share is not broken out publicly
- Con: No published rates or timelines to hold it to

## What Searchers Say

Known in SBA circles as a high-volume, technology-forward 7(a) lender, with trade-press coverage of its small-dollar lending push. Searcher-community discussion is thin relative to Live Oak or Byline; sentiment is roundup-level rather than firsthand.

## Sources

- https://www.stearnsbank.com
- https://www.americanbanker.com/news/a-stearns-bank-unit-unveils-streamlined-small-dollar-7a-loan-product
- 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/stearns-bank
Last checked: 2026-10-03

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