Meridian Bank: SBA Lending Record

Meridian Bank in the SBA record

SBA reports Meridian Bank as holding, or last holding, 869 loans approved in FY2017 through FY2026, which together represent $789.0 million of gross dollars. Of these, 869 are 7(a) and 0 are 504. As on every lender page, these numbers describe holdings and say nothing about how the bank chose its borrowers.

Class mix: quick-service food leads

628 loans sit outside our asset classes. Among classed loans, limited-service restaurant leads with 65, far above fitness center and full-service restaurant at 22 each. Child care center holds 20, coffee shop and snack bar 19, and the car and truck repair class 17. Quick-service food is the clear leader in the classed part of the file. A study for such a unit tests the traffic around the site, the build-out cost and lease terms, and the sales needed to carry the payment with some margin.

Two states at the top

Pennsylvania has 407 loans and New Jersey 202. Florida follows at 45, Maryland at 29, and North Carolina and Texas at 21 each, with California at 20. The file is concentrated in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and a borrower in either state will find this holder well represented. Elsewhere the counts are thin enough that they say little.

Cancellation floor and a small cohort

Meridian Bank shows 14.5% cancelled on its FY2017 to FY2024 approvals (a floor) and a ceiling of 16.0%. Within the 281 loans disbursed from FY2017 to FY2021, 2.8% sit charged off so far, which is a floor. The five-year charge-off share for Meridian is kept off the page by a Loan Analytics rule, and that blank cannot be taken for nil. A cohort of 281 is small, so the 2.8% should be held loosely, as a floor that can rise while loans continue to age.

How this fits a feasibility study

Borrowers sometimes read a lender's record as a promise. It is only a description of a file. The study is where a project earns attention: demand at the site, a cost estimate checked against the market, debt service coverage under stress and an appraisal that rests on evidence. A food or fitness operator should also test staffing and lease commitments, since they do not flex when sales soften.