Patriot Express offers financial help for both startups, larger companies
Tuesday Jul 17, 2007
Whereas the Department of Veterans Affairs long has helped the military with loans for housing and educational expenses, such as the GI Bill, it has not been as helpful for business loans.
But with increased efforts to deliver federal services to military members, thanks to a task force developed in March by President Bush, the SBA got involved by creating the Patriot Express loan program.
The loan itself puts together the most desirable parts of the SBA's 7(a) loan program (offering a higher guarantee and more competitive interest rates) and its Express product (offering simpler processing online and greater availability). Patriot Express loans can go up to $500,000, compared with the SBA Express maximum of $350,000.
These loans also will carry a 75 percent to 85 percent guarantee (depending on the amount of the loan), compared with a 50 percent guarantee for SBA Express, allowing lenders the support to extend capital to veterans. And as an Express loan product, lenders and borrowers can get an answer within a day, in most cases.
Those seeking a loan also will be able to draw from the power of 2,000 financial institutions -- the number of SBA Express lenders with satisfactory loan performance who are eligible to participate in the initiative.
G. Gail Gesell, SBA's Indiana District director, put together a flyer noting all such details of the Patriot Express loan and announcing an information session to be Thursday night at Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana's location at the old Fort Benjamin Harrison. She then set up a registration phone line.
"That phone is ringing every hour," Gesell said. "There's an extraordinary amount of interest, coming from startup-company type of entrepreneurs or those in business for many years that didn't realize the SBA had loans for everybody and some that are now targeting to military."
Gesell is hearing various ways of how business owners are thinking about using such loans, from Broderick's central- office plan to another owner with 12 years in small business who is planning major growth.
At the information session, several lenders and small- business counselors will be on hand to answer questions about the loans and how they can benefit veterans trying to set their sights on success in business
Source:
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