December 4, 2025 by Bob ColemanFounder & Publisher Movers & Shakers: Karen McHugh, Val DeCola, & Daniel Godfrey Karen McHugh Announces Retirement from the SBA Lending Industry After Four Decades After more than 40 years of dedication to the SBA lending community, Karen McHugh has announced her retirement from the SBA lending industry. A respected…

December 3, 2025 Bob ColemanFounder & Publisher A Coleman Conversation: Mary Kropp In this week’s episode of A Coleman Conversation, Bob Coleman sits down with long-time SBA 504 expert and industry consultant Mary Kropp to discuss her remarkable journey across banking, CDC leadership, entrepreneurship, and national SBA advocacy. Mary reflects on her transition from Michigan…

December 2, 2025 Bob ColemanFounder & Publisher Underneath the Hood — What’s Happening with Newtek, The Nation’s #2 SBA 7(a) Lender Newtek’s story begins in the late 1990s, when Barry Sloane founded the company as a non-bank lender focused on serving America’s small businesses. Long before it held deposits or called itself a bank, Newtek…

November 28, 2025 Bob ColemanFounder & Publisher Blueacorn’s Stephanie Hockridge Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison Stephanie Hockridge was sentenced to 120 months in federal prison for her role in the Blueacorn PPP loan fraud scheme. Blueacorn collected over a billion dollars in fees by coaching and preparing fraudulent PPP applications, and Hockridge personally…

November 26, 2025 Bob ColemanFounder & Publisher A Coleman Conversation: Carissa Sousa In this week’s episode of A Coleman Conversation, Bob Coleman sits down with Carissa Sousa, AVP at Shoreham Bank in Warwick, Rhode Island, to discuss her rapid rise in government-guaranteed lending, the bank’s nationwide SBA strategy, and how thoughtful guideline tightening is attracting…

SBA Hot Topic Tuesday: Coleman Report Top SBA 7(a) Lenders by $ and # of Loans Alaska Growth Capital Top State 7(a) Lender by $ — AlaskaTop State 7(a) Lender by # — Alaska BancFirst Top State 7(a) Lender by $ — OklahomaTop State 7(a) Lender by # — Oklahoma Banco Popular de Puerto Rico…

November 24, 2025 by Ben KoplanCLU, CFP®, LifeEase The Post-Shutdown SBA Loan Surge: Why Expedited Life Insurance Is Critical for Timely Loan Closings Executive Summary The recent 43-day federal government shutdown created an unprecedented backlog in SBA loan processing, blocking approximately $5.3 billion in capital from reaching 10,000 small businesses nationwide. With the government reopening…

November 24, 2025 Bob ColemanFounder & Publisher, Coleman Report Main Street Monday: How San Francisco Is Reinvesting in Its Downtown Core Ignoring the political noise for a moment, the bottom line is simple: access to capital solves a lot of Main Street problems. Vacant storefronts, deferred maintenance, slow reopenings — most of these issues trace…

November 24, 2025 by Bob ColemanFounder & Publisher Main Street Monday: Coleman Report SBA 504 Top 100 SBA’s 504 program posted a strong year. Fiscal 2025 volume came in at $7.8 billion, a 17% jump over FY24. The program has now logged three straight years of growth—though it’s still shy of the $9.2 billion record…

November 21, 2025 by Bob ColemanFounder & Publisher Kris Roglieri Pleads Guilty in Massive Commercial Loan Fraud Scheme Kris Roglieri, the former CEO of Prime Capital Ventures, pled guilty on November 13 to federal wire fraud conspiracy charges after prosecutors detailed a large scheme that pulled in more than $55 million from commercial loan clients.…