An asset-based loan is different from a cash flow loan in the sense that the loan is not secured by the amount of cash flow that a business accrues but instead by the company’s assets. This could include real estate, inventory, equipment, accounts receivable (A/R) or other forms of collateral.

Business underwriting may refer to the purchase of corporate bonds or government securities and can be termed security underwriting, insurance underwriting, forensic underwriting, or real estate underwriting. Business underwriting can also refer to several different procedures depending on where and what business is conducted. 

The Small Business Administration was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the US federal government “to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation.”