For Lenders

Below are programs that can help you reduce your credit exposure, improve your borrower’s cash flow, secure underwriting approval and maintain your client relationships. With easy approval processes and flexible repayment terms, these programs can help you help your business clients start, grow and be successful.

FOR BUSINESS OWNERS

Understanding the programs that are available to help turn your bank’s response to your loan request from a “maybe” to a “yes” can be critical to your success while at the same time lowering your borrowing costs and improving your cash-flow.

Charlotte Business Equity Loan Program

Charlotte’s Business Equity Loan Program is a gap financing tool that works with a bank to:
- Reduce a bank’s credit exposure
- Improve borrower cash-flow
- Provide flexible repayment terms
- Finance virtually any business purpose including working capital and startup projects
- Work in conjunction with any SBA term-loan product including 7A and 504 (SBA financing is not required)
- Provide easy loan approval process

In many ways the program is comparable to a SBA 504 loan (except that Charlotte’s program can be used for virtually any business purpose including working capital). Traditional banks benefit from utilizing this program by, among other things, reducing the bank’s credit exposure, which not only helps the lender get their respective loan approved, but also helps them retain a valuable customer while ultimately helping their business client obtain the capital they need to grow and succeed in our community. Utilizing the Business Equity Loan Program can also improve the business’s cash flow position, thereby allowing the business owner to retain funds within their business for working capital purposes. In addition, projects can often meet a lender’s Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) compliance requirements. Finally, the program can be used in conjunction with any SBA loan product to further reduce a Bank’s credit exposure.

Charlotte Facade and Security Grant Programs

Charlotte’s facade improvement and security grant programs provide matching funds for storefront architectural renovations and security improvements to eligible commercial buildings in targeted areas. Lenders considering loan requests that involve the upfit of commercial property may be able to consider these grant funds as a ‘source of repayment’ or ‘source of funds’ for the loan request they are considering. This, in turn, can improve the project underwriting, and particularly when it comes to assessing the ability of the business to service the proposed debt.

Charlotte Brownfield Programs

Charlotte’s Brownfield Programs provide funds for assessment and remediation activities of sites in targeted areas suspected of environmental contamination. Lenders considering loan requests that involve brownfield sites may be able to consider these grant funds as a ‘source of repayment‘ or ‘source of funds’ for projects they are considering funding, thereby improving the underwriting ratios of the project.

Charlotte Community Loan Fund

The Charlotte Community Loan Fund:
- Provides lenders with a referral source for their business clients
- Helps your business clients access the capital they need to start & grow their business
- Helps lenders retain client relationships

Traditional lenders considering small business loan requests in the Charlotte region that are just under their institution’s normal underwriting guidelines can refer those clients to the Charlotte Community Loan Fund as a possible source of funding. Knowing about this resource not only benefits your client when they are seeking financing that you and your institution may otherwise be unable to provide, but also helps you retain your overall banking relationship with your valuable customers.

The Fund is a unique partnership between the City of Charlotte, Self Help, and other major corporations and foundations in the Charlotte area.

Charlotte SBA 504 Lenders

The SBA’s 504 loan program works in participation with bank financing of fixed assets including owner-occupied real estate. The Borrower benefits from the program by receiving a longer financing term on the SBA portion of the funds together with what is generally considered a lower market interest rate. Lenders benefit from utilizing the 504 program by, among other things, reducing the bank’s credit exposure, which not only helps the lender get their respective loan approved, but also helps the lender retain a valuable customer and ultimately helps their business client obtain the capital they need to grow and succeed in our community. Lenders considering a 504 eligible project may also be able to utilize the Charlotte Business Equity Loan Program to fund, for example, a portion of the working capital needs of the project.

SBA 504 Lenders in the Charlotte area:

Self Help

Having Self Help in our community is a great resource for small businesses and lenders alike. As a non-profit community development lender, Self Help is not here to compete with traditional banks, but to complement the services traditional banks offer. Self Help is able to give consideration to small business loans that often times traditional banks are unable to consider, such as start-up loans. They are not only able to provide SBA loan guaranty programs, but they are also the administrator of the SBE Loan Fund, are one of Charlotte’s three SBA 504 lenders, and they are also the local SBA microloan program lender. Traditional lenders considering small business loan requests in the Charlotte region that are just under their institution’s normal underwriting guidelines can refer those clients to Self Help as a possible source of funding. Knowing about this resource not only benefits your client when they are seeking financing that you and your institution are unable to provide, but also helps you retain your overall banking relationship with your valuable customers.

Technical Assistance Providers

Technical assistance providers available in the Charlotte area:

In addition to many private-sector business consultants, the Charlotte area is fortunate to have a number of excellent non-profit business service providers that are both knowledgeable and passionate about small business. Businesses can benefit from developing relationships with these resources to help them become positioned for ongoing success at any stage of their life cycle. Although perhaps not as obvious, financial institutions and their business development officers, commercial lenders, and underwriters can benefit from these resources as well. When lenders are considering a business loan request that they are unable to approve because they have discerned a weakness in the operational strength of the business, or perhaps because the loan proposal is simply “not what it should be,” a referral to a technical assistance provider can be beneficial in helping the business become better positioned for success. In addition, when lenders find themselves faced with a loan in their portfolio that has, for example, performed satisfactorily for a long time but suddenly becomes “non-performing,” a referral to a technical assistance provider can help that business identify how to overcome the obstacles it is facing which, in turn, can potentially result in returning the loan to a ‘satisfactory’ status while at the same time helping the business stay viable. Lenders are encouraged to contact these organizations to learn more about how you can work together to help your business clients and make referrals

Are you a business looking for a loan? Refer your loan officer to this site to learn how these programs can help.

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