Through a new set of regulations, the U.S. Small Business Administration will create a secondary market guarantee program to provide greater liquidity for lenders and expand access to capital for small businesses.
The new program, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), would encourage sales into the secondary market of the “first mortgage” portion of small business financing made possible through the SBA’s 504 Certified Development Company (CDC) program.
The 504 CDC program provides credit for the purchase of real estate and other fixed assets tied to a business’ expansion. Financing under the program includes three components:
1) a first mortgage or lien, which is made by a private commercial lender for 50% of the total project and does not come with a government guarantee,
2) a second mortgage or lien, which is made by a CDC for 40% of the total project and guaranteed fully by the SBA,
3) borrower equity for the remaining 10% of the total project.
As a result of the economic recession and the disruption in the credit markets, secondary market activity for 504 first mortgage loans has significantly declined.
To provide greater liquidity for lenders and expand access to capital for small businesses, under the new regulations, portions of eligible 504 first mortgages pooled by originators or broker dealers could be sold with an SBA guarantee to third-party investors in the secondary market. Lenders will retain at least 15% of each individual loan, pool originators will assume 5% of the risk, and the SBA will guarantee the remaining 80%.
To be eligible to be included in a pool, the first mortgage must be associated with a 504 loan disbursed on or after Feb. 17, 2009.
The program will be in place until Feb. 16, 2011, or until $3bn in new pools are created, whichever occurs first. SBA will begin accepting applications to become a pool originator from banks and broker dealers immediately, and expects to be operational for the settlement of pools in about 60 days.
FinSMEs
29/10/2009