SOP 50 10

SBA's rulebook for how lenders originate, underwrite, close and service 7(a) and 504 loans. It runs to several hundred pages and is revised every year or two.

When a banker tells you 'the SOP won't allow that,' they're right about half the time. The other half it's the bank's own internal policy wearing SBA's clothes. Ask which section — a lender who can cite it is telling you the truth, and one who can't may have room to move.