Suncrest Bank is leveraging an automation partnership formed during the pandemic to potentially generate $15-$20 million annually in loan production by expanding its Small Business Administration 7 (a) lending program, said Chief Operating Officer Steve Jones.

The $1.3 billion bank is partnering with online lending network SmartBiz to grow its lending program. During the first year, Suncrest is focused on offering the loans to its customers and expects the automation could lead to $5-$10 million in loan production, and the bank estimates those numbers will grow as the program ramps up.

Previously, the Visalia, Calif.-based bank processed only a small number of SBA 7(a) loans through its government guarantee lending group and did so manually. The loans are designed to help small, credit-worthy businesses that don’t qualify for conventional loans.

The new partnership grew out of the bank’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan process, when Suncrest sent excess PPP loans to SmartBiz for processing. After that, it became clear that the bank could also use SmartBiz to expand its SBA 7(a) loan business.

“Coming out of the first round of PPP, we realized [there] was probably going to be a need for a lot of customers that had taken a PPP from not only us, but other banks as well, for the continued working capital,” Jones said. “But we really don’t have a sales structure that was ready for that.”

SmartBiz provides the structure, as well as automating what has until now been a manual process for the bank. The San Francisco-based online platform and serves as a clearinghouse for customers looking for SBA loans. Banks can also join SmartBiz’s clearinghouse site, which sends customers to banks that can meet their credit requirements. The platform has received $37 million in four funding rounds, according to Crunchbase.

SmartBiz is linked from Suncrest Bank’s website, and SmartBiz automates the loan application, taking information from the applicant and performing a soft pull of their credit. If the customer’s information fits the bank’s credit criteria, the platform advances the application to Suncrest’s underwriting group for review. The loan then goes back into the SmartBiz lending platform and creates documents to send via DocuSign. The process is largely automated through SmartBiz, which uses a SQL database along with proprietary applications to automate. Jones said Suncrest did have to invest in DocuSign for the e-signature process.

Suncrest plans initially to offer the loans to its own customers, but ultimately fund loans in a broader market. The automation provided by SmartBiz allows the bank to “offer this not only to our existing customers, but also we can open that up as an expanded line of business that would allow us to look at 7 (a) loans, really, across the country,” Jones said.

Bank Automation Ignite, taking place March 2-3, 2021 as a virtual experience, is the event for inspiring automation initiatives and investment in financial services. Formerly the Bank Innovation Ignite conference, this new focus creates an event where financial services professionals can discover new use cases and technologies that are accelerating automation in banking. Learn more and register for the event at www.BankAutomationIgnite.com.