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SBA to cut 40% of employees.... BREAKING NEWS -- WSJ Says SBA to Cut 40% of Employees, 2700 Jobs Wall Street Journal’s Meredith McGraw and Scott Peterson exclusively report SBA is planning to cut more than 40% of its workforce this morning.“The extensive workforce reduction and restructuring will take the SBA, an agency with more than 6,500 employees, back to pre-pandemic staffing levels by eliminating around 2,700 positions. The cuts will affect nonessential roles at the agency, and include voluntary resignations and the expiration of appointments made during the Covid-19 pandemic.”SBA administrator Kelly Loeffler also posted a video on X, titled "Change is coming to the SBA." Following is the transcription:"I'm Kelly Loeffler, Administrator of the US Small Business Administration. In my first message from the SBA, you saw what I encountered when I first arrived in Washington. Rows of empty desks sitting in multimillion dollar office buildings, thousands of work from home staff collecting an average salary in excess of a hundred and $34,000. That's more than double the national average wage. But the waste, inefficiency, and mismanagement go much deeper.Since the pandemic, the SBA has doubled its workforce, expanding in size, scope, and spending with miserable results. Instead of reducing the workforce after the pandemic, the last administration deployed the full force of this agency to advance a new partisan agenda from Green New Deal lending programs to DEI contracting. Predictably, the SBA services suffered. For four full years, the agency failed to pass an audit. Our largest loan program, which should operate at zero cost to taxpayers, saw negative cash flow for the first time in over a decade.Meanwhile, they refused to investigate or prosecute more than 200,000,000,000 in pandemic era fraud that is still to this day owed to American taxpayers. That's why change is coming to the SBA. The SBA is getting back to work. It needs to get back to our founding mission of empowering America's job creators. This agency is done wasting millions of tax dollars to fund a progressive pandemic era bureaucracy.We will not allow fiscal mismanagement to threaten our loan programs or criminals to get away with fraud. But we will evaluate every program and expenditure, and we will right size the agency to transform the SBA into a high efficiency engine for America's Entrepreneurs and taxpayers. As administrator, I'm committed to restoring the SBA's mission of promoting America's small businesses with accountability and results. Because when we restore our mission, we will also restore the historic prosperity that lifted up millions of small businesses during President Trump's first term. In short, we will make Main Street great again." Steve Benjamin Professional Business Loans 522 Contessa Irvine, CA 92620 steveprobiz@gmail.com https://probizloans.net/ Broker, Underwriter, general business loan expert 949.228.1050

The SBA just announced that all SBA-funded projects must be 100% owned by US citizens or permanent residents. A non-citizen can no longer own any portion of the business securing financing. This is just one of the many changes I expect the SBA to make to its programs. Our is a large, national SBA lender who will be closely monitoring any changes.

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Hello everyone, My name is Matt Heske, and I’m the Director of Partnerships at Drip Capital. I’m excited to introduce both myself and our innovative payables financing product. At Drip Capital, we help businesses optimize cash flow by providing flexible, collateral-free credit lines that empower companies to manage supplier payments, extend payment terms (up to 120 days), and preserve existing banking relationships—all while fueling growth. Plus, our financing comes with no personal guarantee (PG) and no UCC filings. Having originated over $7B globally, our solution is already making a significant impact across industries. We are actively onboarding new partners and would love to explore potential opportunities to collaborate with you. If you're interested in learning more about our product or discussing a partnership, please feel free to reach out to me directly at matt.heske@dripcapital.com. Best regards, Matt Heske Director, Partnerships Drip Capital

The Business Journals Feb 11, 2025 The Small Business Administration’s flagship 7(a) loan program lost hundreds of millions of dollars in 2024 as agency fee reductions combined with an increase in loan defaults to result in negative cash flow. It's a marked change for a program that generally has operated with a large surplus. And it could mean higher loan fees in the future. Those findings, and others, come from a detailed risk assessment by the SBA of its 7(a) portfolio through June 30, 2024, that was obtained by The Playbook as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. It shows a portfolio stressed by rising defaults, more loan purchases and less money coming from fees. The report also shows a change, starting in late 2023, when it comes to the impact of loan-origination fees, which long have covered the cost of purchasing failed loans from lenders. The SBA's recent financial performance has made it a prime target for Republican lawmakers as well as the agency's administrator-nominee, former Sen. Kelly Loeffler. According to the documents provided to The Playbook, the 7(a) program saw positive cash flow of about $651 million in fiscal 2022. That sum fell to a positive $88.2 million in fiscal 2023. The agency posted positive cash flow of $133 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2023, but just $22.7 million in gains in the second quarter and $29.7 million in the third quarter before registering a $97.2 million loss in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2023. The decline happened after the SBA said it would begin to reduce loan-origination fees across most loan types, in addition to dropping some guarantee and annual-service fees. Among such moves, the SBA eliminated an upfront guarantee fee for loans under $500,000 in fiscal 2023. The SBA reduced loan fees even further in fiscal 2024. It eliminated upfront guarantee fees for loans longer than 12 months and less than $1 million. It cut in half those same fees for loans between $1 million and $2 million. Loans with less than 12 months of term also saw their fees reduced, and annual service fees were cut as well. The SBA ended up with negative cash flow of about $274 million in the first three quarters of its fiscal 2024, through June 30. The SBA report obtained through the public-records request attributed about $49 million of the negative cash flow to reduced fees. It attributed $174 million to a backlog of about 500 guaranteed loan purchases from fiscal 2023 that were paid in fiscal 2024. The additional $51 million of the $274 million total was not attributed to a specific cause. The 7(a) program historically has operated with a large surplus — about $4 billion since 2013, and nearly $1 billion since 2021, according to the report analyzed by The Playbook. It was unclear from the report how long the 7(a) program could run at a loss. But the SBA said in a statement the program does not use a reserve fund and has run without a subsidy from the taxpayers for the last several years, and that the programs cash flow analysis is used to determine the fee structures for new loans, and whether they should be higher or lower for the next fiscal year. "SBA consistently assesses the program’s net cash flow to determine whether its fee structures for new loans should be higher or lower for the next fiscal year, subject to a limit set by Federal law," the agency said in a statement. "The net cash flow analysis does not affect SBA’s ability to pay guarantees; it adjusts how much SBA thinks it needs to charge for new loans." The agency in July said it would again limit certain fees for its fiscal 2025, which began Oct. 1. In announcing its current fee schedule, the SBA said it was continuing to expand "access to capital for underserved populations through small dollar loans." "To continue to encourage small dollar lending, the agency will continue to set zero or extremely low fees for small dollar loans, including no fees for loans $500,000 or less in its flagship 7(a) program," the SBA said. SBA 7(a) loans see rise in delinquencies and defaults The SBA's fee reductions have come at a time when the agency also has seen an increase in the number of troubled loans, adding pressure to the agency’s balance sheet. While Federal Reserve data shows defaults are rising among all commercial loans, the SBA has shown a steeper uptick in recent months relative to loans from private-sector banks. The percentage of SBA's “stressed loans" — or loans more than 31 days past due, deferred or delinquent — rose from 1.77% in October 2023 to 2.4% in June 2024, according to the SBA report. The last 12-month default rate, or the gross balance of all defaulted loans over the past year compared to the average active balance, grew from a low of 1.32% in 2022 to 2.76% in June 2024. That 12-month default rate is roughly the same as it was during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. It previously had not been that high since late 2012, as the agency was emerging from the Great Recession and financial industry collapse several years earlier. Default rates are hitting specific industries harder than others, according to the SBA’s data. It found construction and manufacturing with the highest rate of default, while food services and accommodation saw below-average default rates. The SBA report laid out a number of enforcement actions it took in fiscal 2024, although it was unclear against which lenders those actions came and if any monetary penalties were involved. The agency listed 540 increased supervision actions and 104 suspensions and debarments, among thousands of lender reviews and loan-compliance checks. SBA's 7(a) program in the Congressional spotlight The relative health of SBA’s 7(a) program has come up as a discussion point in recent weeks. SBA Administrator-nominee Kelly Loeffler said during her nomination hearing before the Senate Small Business Committee last month that tackling rising delinquencies and early defaults were top priorities. “These are the types of things, red flags, that should have been put up sooner,” Loeffler said, adding the 7(a) program historically functioned with zero subsidy from taxpayers but is in danger of needing additional support. “We are in a position right now as this year starts that that may not happen,” she said. STORY CONTINUES https://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/news/2025/02/11/sba-7a-small-business-lending-financials.html

President Trump has named a new CFPB director while the agency faces an uncertain future. Jonathan McKernan, who was until recently a director on the board of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), has been tapped by Trump to oversee the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), according to multiple published reports Wednesday (Feb. 12). The nomination comes days after Russell Vought, acting director of the consumer watchdog group, ordered the agency’s offices closed. Vought — who also heads the Office of Management and Budget — instructed staff to work from home while halting all CFPB enforcement efforts. Vought also said he would shut off the CFPB’s funding, writing on X that he had informed the Federal Reserve that the agency would not take its next draw of unappropriated funding because it wasn’t needed to fulfill its duties. “The Bureau’s current balance of $711.6 million is in fact excessive in the current fiscal environment,” he wrote. “This spigot, long contributing to CFPB’s unaccountability, is now being turned off.” And as Trump was nominating McKernan, several CFPB workers were being let go. Dozens of workers were fired via email Tuesday (Feb. 11) evening, according to a report by Wired. That report, citing unnamed sources, describes the email as frenetic, with an apparently failed mail merge meaning that workers were addressed as “[EmployeeFirstName][EmployeeLastName], [Job Title], [Division].” “This is to provide notification that I am removing you from your position of [Job Title] and federal service consistent with the above references,” the email read. “Unfortunately, the Agency finds that that [sic] you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.” Events like these have essentially left the CFPB in “limbo,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster wrote earlier this week. FULL STORY: https://www.pymnts.com/news/cfpb/2025/trump-names-new-cfpb-head-amid-regulatory-limbo/

Happy to have Laura Claydon on Zoom to discuss all things Business Lines of Credit that ARF Financial offers where she is a VP and Loan Officer!! Get Registered for this special session, especially if you are not already onboard with them. We will talk about all of the advantages that business owners can gain from getting a BLOC and what this year is looking like for this market.

Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced a bill on Tuesday that would cap credit card interest rates at 10% − an effort by two lawmakers who rarely see eye to eye. Credit card interest rates refer to the fee a card issuer charges if a consumer doesn’t pay off their credit card balance in full by a certain date. The average credit card interest rate is over 20%, according to data from Bankrate. Sanders and Hawley’s bill comes after President Donald Trump vowed in the 2024 race to temporarily cap credit card interest rates at 10%. “When large financial institutions charge over 25 percent interest on credit cards, they are not engaged in the business of making credit available,” Sanders said in a statement. “They are engaged in extortion and loan sharking. We cannot continue to allow big banks to make huge profits ripping off the American people.” Hawley said that the bill “is a simple way to provide meaningful relief to working people.” The legislation would be in effect for five years, according to a press release.  The proposal will likely face scrutiny among bank and credit card industry lobbyists. The American Financial Services Association, a national trade association for the consumer credit industry, argued in a September statement that rate caps are “unworkable” and “actually harm the consumers policymakers are trying to help by limiting the types of credit” Americans depend on. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/04/bill-cap-credit-card-interest-rates-senators/78223935007/

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Looking for 750K commercial real estate refinance loan for landlord of Mavis Tire in Long Island, NY. Very strong lease with national tenant.

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