§ 107.550 Prior approval of secured third-party debt of Leveraged Licensees. ( a ) *Definition.* In this section, *secured third-party debt* means any non-SBA debt secured by any of your assets, including secured guarantees and other contingent obligations that you voluntarily assume, and secured lines of credit.
( b ) *General rule.* If you are a Leveraged Licensee, you must get SBA's written approval before you incur any secured third-party debt or refinance any debt with secured third-party debt, including any renewal of a secured line of credit, increase in the maximum amount available under a secured line of credit, or expansion of the scope of a security interest or lien. For purposes of this paragraph (b), “expansion of the scope of a security interest or lien” does not include the substitution of one asset or group of assets for another, provided the asset values (as reported on your most recent annual Form 468) are comparable.
( c ) *Capital Call Line.* Without obtaining SBA's written approval, a Leveraged Licensee may obtain from a federally regulated financial institution, a line of credit (“Capital Call Line”) that meets all of the following conditions: ( 1 ) The maximum amount available under the Capital Call Line is no more than your unfunded Regulatory Capital, as reflected on your most recent Capital Certificate;
( 2 ) Your payment obligations under the Capital Call Line may be secured, but only by your unfunded Regulatory Capital;
( 3 ) The lender under the Capital Call Line may have a right to debit your depository account(s) at the lender's institution, so long as such lender's right to debit is limited to circumstances involving a default of your obligation to pay principal, interest, or fees due (“Payment Default”) under the Capital Call Line and only to the amount of such Payment Default;
( 4 ) Each borrowing under the Capital Call Line must be repaid, in full, within 120 days after it is drawn;
( 5 ) The term of the Capital Call Line may not exceed 12 months, but may be renewable, provided that each renewal does not exceed 12 months and you remain in compliance with the conditions of this paragraph (c); and
( 6 ) Consistent with § 107.410, the Capital Call Line contains no provision permitting the lender to dictate when capital calls are made or otherwise ceding to the lender any control of the Licensee or its operations; provided, however, that the Capital Call Line may include a provision authorizing the lender, in the event of a Payment Default, to endorse, on your behalf, checks and other forms of payment in the Lender's possession and to apply the proceeds of such instruments to such Payment Default, with unapplied and remaining proceeds promptly to be paid to you.
( d ) *Conditions for SBA approval.* Excluding Capital Call Lines defined in paragraph (c) of this section, SBA approval is required for secured third-party debt. As a condition of granting such approval under this section, SBA may impose such restrictions or limitations as it deems appropriate, taking into account your historical performance, current financial position, proposed terms of the secured debt and amount of aggregate debt you will have outstanding (including Leverage). SBA will not favorably consider any requests for approval which include a blanket lien on all your assets, or a security interest in your investor commitments in excess of 125 percent of the proposed borrowing.
[88 FR 46009, July 18, 2023]