Authority SBA grants a lender to make its own eligibility and credit decision before SBA issues a loan number: PLP and SBA Express for 7(a), ALP and PCLP for 504.
For 7(a) loans SBA considers whether the lender can evaluate, process, close, disburse, service and liquidate SBA loans, has satisfactory SBA performance, follows program requirements such as its monthly Form 1502 reporting and timely payment of fees to SBA, has finished required corrective actions, and shows no enforcement action or other risk signs such as rapid growth. The decision is final. The lender signs a Supplemental Guarantee Agreement for a term of two years or less, and a lender with under three years of SBA lending gets one year or less.
For 504 loans a development company earns Accredited Lenders status, which needs at least 20 loans authorized in three years and a portfolio of at least 30 active loans, and then Premier Certified status, which adds authority to liquidate. Both are generally granted for two years.
A delegated lender that needs an exception to SBA policy must ask SBA first, and the answer covers that loan only. The lender carries the risk of a wrong call, because SBA can deny or repair the guaranty at purchase.
How it shows up in the data here
Not a field. The SBA file shows the result as ProcessingMethod on each loan: PLP, SBX and EXP for 7(a), ALP, 5EX and PCP for 504, against 7AG for general processing. It does not show whether a lender holds authority now, and authority is granted for a term of two years or less.
Go further
- SBA 7(a) lenders by loans made: Counts by lender; open a lender to see its processing mix where the record has it.
- SBA 504 development companies by projects
- SBA Preferred Lenders Program and Express: how they differ: Some SBA lenders decide a loan on their own authority and some send it to SBA first. The difference changes who reads your file and who carries the risk.
Related terms
- Preferred Lenders Program (PLP): A status SBA gives some 7(a) lenders to decide eligibility and credit on their own authority, with SBA reviewing a loan only at purchase or oversight.
- SBA Express loan: A 7(a) loan of $500,000 or less that only a lender with SBA Express authority can make, on its own credit decision, with a 50 percent SBA guaranty.
- Certified development company (CDC): A lender certified by SBA to package, close and service 504 loans and to issue the debenture that funds up to 40 percent of a project.
- SOP 50 10 (SBA lender manual): SBA's rulebook for 7(a) and 504 loans, in three parts: core requirements, 7(a) requirements and 504 requirements. Version 8.1 took effect on October 1, 2026.
Sources
Plain definitions for orientation, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do.