Arkansas Capital Corporation of Little Rock said this week that the U.S. Small Business Administration has named it one of three new Small Business Lending Company (SBLC) licensees — the first expansion of the SBLC program in 40 years.
Arkansas Capital said the designation will allow it to expand SBA 7a lending services nationwide. It said it will focus at first on the states bordering Arkansas that contain nearly 40% of all persistent poverty counties nationwide.
Persistent poverty counties are those with 20% or more residents living in poverty consistently for 30 or more years.
“For over thirty years, we have used the SBA 7(a) program to support small businesses in underserved areas of Arkansas where accessing capital is uniquely cumbersome,” Arkansas Capital CEO Sam Walls said in a news release. “Arkansas Capital has bolstered regional economic development, but now with this SBLC license, we can widen our SBA 7(a) footprint as well, expanding our services to rural and poverty-stricken areas in the South to start.
SBLC licensees can use government guarantees to borrowers in all 50 states when underwriting small-business loans to reduce the level of risk to the lender and the cost to the borrower.
More on Arkansas Capital’s SBA financing options are available here.
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