(a) Definition. In this §107.550, “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, secured lines of credit, and secured Temporary Debt of a Licensee with outstanding Participating Securities.

(b) General rule. If you have outstanding Leverage, 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) Additional rule for secured lines of credit in existence on April 8, 1994. If you have outstanding Leverage and you have a secured line of credit that was created on or before April 8, 1994, you must receive SBA's written approval of the line before you increase the amounts outstanding thereunder.

(d) Conditions for SBA approval. As a condition of granting its approval under this §107.550, 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.

(e) Thirty day approval. Unless SBA notifies you otherwise within 30 days after it receives your request, you may consider your request automatically approved if:

(1) You are in regulatory compliance;

(2) The security interest in your assets is limited to either those assets being acquired with the borrowed funds or an asset coverage ratio of no more than 2:1;

(3) Your Leverage does not exceed 150 percent of your Leverageable Capital; and

(4) Your request is for approval of a secured line of credit that would not cause your total outstanding borrowings (not including Leverage) to exceed 50 percent of your Leverageable Capital.