The SBA just uncoupled its two big loan caps. The fine print only swings one way.
Issue No. 1: what changed on the Fourth of July, and the order that matters now.
For about twenty years in this business I have watched borrowers hit the same ceiling. The government backs $3.75 million of your debt, total, and the way that cap got applied, a maxed-out 7(a) meant the 504 window was treated as shut. Everybody in my chair repeated it like scripture. I repeated it too.
On the Fourth of July that changed. Policy Notice 5000-879058, if you want to read it yourself, and you should. The SBA put it in writing: your outstanding 7(a) balance no longer reduces what you can borrow under 504. The two caps live in two different statutes, and the agency finally said so. A borrower can now carry a maxed 7(a) and up to $5 million in 504 debentures at the same time, $5.5 million for small manufacturers and qualifying energy projects. Working capital on one side, the building on the other. One business, both programs. Yep, you read that right.
Now here is the part nobody puts in the brochure. It only swings one way. The 7(a) statute still counts every dollar the SBA guarantees for you, 504 included, against its $3.75 million cap. So the order is the whole game. Do the 7(a) first and the 504 after, and both doors stay open. Do the 504 first and you just shrank your own 7(a) room. A borrower carrying a $2 million debenture has about $2.3 million of 7(a) left at a 75 percent guaranty. Not $5 million. That math is going to surprise some people who do this for a living.
That is what this paper is for, and this is the first issue of it. I lend SBA money for a living. The useful parts of the job kept ending up in emails to about three people, so now they go here. Every other Tuesday, one thing worth the click. Some of it is the job itself, what kills a file, what a broker won’t tell you, the case against the loan I sell. Some of it comes out of the federal loan record, which the SBA publishes and almost nobody reads. Some of it won’t be about lending at all. Fair warning, there may be cookies.
One rule covers everything. Nothing prints here unless it traces to a primary source, with the date and the denominator attached. Today’s receipt is the notice itself, published May 18, 2026, effective July 4, 2026. If you catch an error, tell me and I will fix it in public, and the correction prints in this issue, dated. Back issues stay up exactly as published. That’s the point.
