Bankers Healthcare Group, a leading provider of financial solutions for healthcare professionals, expanded into small business lending with a new license to offer loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration through BHG's wholly owned subsidiary, FundEx Solutions Group (FSG). FSG is now one of 14 non-bank lenders in the country offering an SBA 7(a) Loan Guarantee Program.
"We're thrilled to announce that we've earned licensure as a non-bank SBA lender. Not only is this a great opportunity for the BHG brand to grow, but it's a terrific new option for customers who may require loan amounts or terms that are not available through BHG in order to accomplish their business goals," said Mark Schmidt, CEO of FSG.
FSG offers SBA-guaranteed 7(a) loans to licensed professionals nationwide in a number of industries, including healthcare, accounting, architecture, law, engineering, financial services and insurance. Loans range in size up to $5 million, with terms up to 25 years.
Much like BHG's funding approach, FSG strives to streamline the lending process as much as possible to reduce inconvenience to the borrower, leveraging technology and data systems to help facilitate applications as quickly as possible.
SBA-guaranteed loans offered by FSG may be used for the following purposes:
- Real estate acquisition
- Business startup
- Renovation/expansion
- Equipment/inventory/supplies purchase
- Business acquisition
- Commercial debt consolidation
- Working capital
Parent company BHG has nearly two decades of experience providing small business loans to licensed healthcare professionals. The company sees significant demand for higher loan amounts, and FSG can now satisfy qualified requests through the SBA's 7(a) loan program.
"There's market demand for larger loans and we're excited to offer another innovative lending solution to help licensed professionals grow their own businesses," said Al Crawford, original founder/Chairman/CEO of Bankers Healthcare Group. "We built FundEx Solutions Group based on our tenured success in medical financing to be flexible and fast with excellent customer service."
FSG is led by Schmidt, who oversees company operations and provides strategic and managerial leadership. Prior to FSG, he served as Chief Regulatory Relations Officer for BHG. He previously spent seven years as a managing director at Promontory Financial Group and 33 years with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in various supervisory positions.
April Brissette serves as FundEx Solutions Group's Chief Credit Officer, leading the company's day-to-day operations with a focus on overseeing all credit origination and underwriting activities. She has extensive experience and expertise in all aspects of loan underwriting and origination, including SBA loans. For three years, she was an SBA loan packager for a separate BHG affiliate company.
Gale Simons-Poole serves as Regulatory Relations Officer, overseeing regulatory matters, communications, and overall compliance activities of FundEx Solutions Group. She also oversees the company's lending service providers through a robust vendor monitoring program. Previously, Simons-Poole spent 25 years in bank supervision with the FDIC, after which she served as a sought-after consultant to the financial services industry for seven years.