SBA Approval Officer

The SBA Officer is responsible for the post approval review and operational processing of Small Business Administration (SBA) loan applications to ensure compliance with SBA Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and bank underwriting guidelines prior to procuring guarantees under SBA's delegated authority. This role serves as a critical control point between loan approval and loan closing by validating that all SBA required documentation, underwriting analysis, and credit approval materials are complete, accurate, and fully compliant.

This position partners closely with Business Banking Officers, Loan Officers, and the SBA business development team to resolve eligibility issues, documentation deficiencies, with Credit Professionals to confirm that all SBA underwriting and analysis requirements are properly reflected in the credit approval memo, and with the Commercial Documentation department to ensure that loan documents are compliant with SBA SOP.

The role will provide cross-functional support as a Commercial Credit Approval Officer responsible for underwriting and decisioning commercial credit proposals within his/her assigned lending authority.

Commercial Credit Approvals

• Utilize financial analysis, industry evaluation, credit underwriting guidelines, and superior judgment to efficiently underwrite and decision C&I and commercial real estate loan proposals within assigned lending authority or recommend decisions for requests exceeding individual lending authority.
• Collaborate with front line colleagues and/or directly with customers, as necessary, to obtain required documents and/or clarifying information needed to thoroughly underwrite.
• Accurately identify and apply credit policies/underwriting guidelines, prudently recommending approval of reasonable exceptions where the overall credit profile fits within the bank's risk tolerance.
• Properly structure loan proposals to balance simplicity and monitoring ease with credit conservatism.
• Proactively counter-offer SBA guarantees or other credit enhancements, as necessary, to meet customer needs, while mitigating risk.
• Stay conversant with banking laws, regulations, and credit policy/guidelines to ensure that all exceptions are properly identified and justified and that all credit actions comply with pertinent regulations.
• Collaborate with Business Banking and Commercial Banking Partners, throughout the entire loan origination process to ensure excellent customer and colleague experience.
• Participate in audits, regulatory exams, and other third party reviews and assist in the development of responses and follow-up actions, as necessary.

SBA Eligibility & Compliance Review

• Review approved SBA loan applications to ensure full compliance with SBA eligibility and other SOP provisions and loan program guidelines.
• Validate borrower, guarantor, affiliate, and business eligibility, including ownership structures, use of proceeds, size standards, and ineligible activities.
• Ensure that all SBArequired forms (e.g., SBA Form 1919, franchise agreements, etc.) are completed accurately.

• Keep abreast of SBA guidelines, lending regulations, credit policies and credit risk best practices.

• Key contributor in SBA exams/audits, regulatory exams, and other third party reviews and develop responses and follow-up actions, as necessary.

SBA SOP & Credit Approval Alignment

• Conduct detailed reviews of credit approval memoranda to confirm all required elements (e.g. credit elsewhere, all available collateral, etc.) are appropriately documented.
• Identify discrepancies between the credit approval, SBA SOP requirements, and loan documentation and coordinate resolution prior to closing.

SBA Documentation & File Quality Control

• Perform quality control checks on SBA loan files to ensure completeness, accuracy, and audit readiness prior to closing or SBA submission.
• Confirm receipt of all required thirdparty reports, exhibits, and supporting documentation (e.g., business valuations, appraisals, environmental reports) as applicable under SBA guidelines.
• Maintain accurate and wellorganized electronic loan files consistent with internal bank procedures and SBA record retention requirements.

SBA CrossFunctional Collaboration

• Partner with Loan Officers to obtain missing, inaccurate, or incomplete borrower information, clarifying SBA requirements as needed.
• Serve as a subjectmatter resource for SBA SOP interpretation, documentation standards, and operational requirements for internal stakeholders.
• Collaborate with closing and postclosing teams to ensure that disbursements align with approved use of proceeds, evidence of payment is adequately documented, etc.
• Follow-up with Commercial Documentation and Lending teams to resolve all document exceptions

SBA Continuous Process Improvement

• Identify trends, recurring exceptions, or compliance risks within SBA loan approvals and recommend process improvements or training opportunities.
• Assist in preparation for SBA reviews, internal audits, and regulatory examinations by ensuring loan files meet SBA and bank standards.
• Stay current on SBA SOP updates, procedural notices, and program changes and apply those updates consistently in operational reviews.

Education, Certification, License and Experience:

• Bachelor's Degree in Accounting, Finance, or related field
• 5+ years of financial analysis, business lending, commercial banking experience
• 3+ years SBA lending experience
• 2+ years with credit approval authority
• Credit training highly preferred
• Experience writing procedures, developing forms and documenting processes
• Strong understanding of SBA programs, regulations, and their application to small businesses
• Capacity to manage multiple priorities and meet critical closing deadlines
• Excellent organization and time-management skills
• Strong credit and financial analysis skills, including the ability to evaluate debt service coverage, analyze collateral, discern key financial trends and ratios, UCA cash flow, understand impact of emerging technology, trends, etc. on the bank's loan portfolio, etc.
• Strong credit judgment, as demonstrated by the ability to consistently apply pertinent credit policies and regulations to render sound credit decisions within assigned credit approval authority.
• Strong business acumen (i.e. awareness of business cycles, economic conditions and trends, good understanding of factors impacting most industries, etc.)
• Expertise in banking regulations and credit policies relating to most commercial lending situations.
• Deep understanding of lending related compliance and regulatory issues.
• Thorough understanding of the legal documentation requirements for basic business loans.
• Strong penchant for details
• Experience with Microsoft Office tools and aptitude adopting new technology
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills