Author Description

The Small Business Administration (SBA) guarantees individual loans that lenders originate. The agency uses its Loan and Lender Monitoring System (L/LMS) to assess the individual risk of each loan, and SBA's contractor developed a lender risk rating system (LRRS) based on L/LMS data. However, questions have been raised about the extent to which SBA has used its LRRS to improve its oversight of lenders. This report examined: (1) how SBA's LRRS compares with those used by federal financial regulators and lenders and the system's usefulness for predicting lender performance; and (2) how SBA uses the LRRS in its lender oversight activities. The author interviewed officials from three federal financial regulators and 10 large SBA lenders. Illus.