The 90-second underwriting decision — anatomy of a credit yes/no
An experienced underwriter spends 90 seconds on the first pass through a business record, and that window decides whether to dig deeper or decline. The order matters. You are not reading for completeness; you are reading for disqualifiers.
Status kills first
Pull the entity status from the Secretary of State filing. If it says suspended, dissolved, administratively dissolved, forfeited, or revoked, stop. A lapsed LLC or corporation cannot legally sign a loan agreement. Do not pass this to credit committee. Do not ask the borrower to “update it later.” The entity as presented is dead. You have wasted 5 seconds and you are moving on.
If the status is active or good standing, you advance. If it says inactive but not dissolved, flag it; some states use “inactive” for entities that have not filed an annual report but have not been formally dissolved. Check when the last filing was due. A year of silence is a risk signal, even if the state has not killed it yet.
Tax ID and beneficial owner comes next
Look for a Federal Employer ID Number or FEIN on the record. If the entity claims to be an operating business and has no FEIN, that is a red flag. A sole proprietor paying tax under a personal SSN is one thing. An LLC with employees or monthly revenue and no EIN is either newly formed (acceptable) or dormant (bad sign). Verify the FEIN against OFAC, because Treasury sanctions tie to tax IDs.
Beneficial ownership is the next 15 seconds. On an LLC record, look at the members. On a corporation, look at the officers and the stock register if visible. Is there a single owner or is control split three ways? Conflicting member names or no disclosed members at all is a yellow flag. You need to know who signs the check. If the record says nothing, the state does not require disclosure, and you will need to ask the borrower directly.
USDOT and SAFER for any fleet
If the company operates vehicles for hire, haul freight, or runs a commercial fleet, the record must carry a USDOT number and link to FMCSA safety history. Pull that record. Look at the carrier’s safety profile: violations, accidents, out-of-service orders, and inspection ratios. A carrier with a safety rating of “conditional” or “unsatisfactory” is a default risk. You cannot lend to a carrier that will lose its authority and cease operations.
Even if SAFER shows “Active,” cross-check the inspection date. If the carrier has not had a safety inspection in two years, the authority may be stale. If the company name on the state record does not match the USDOT carrier name, flag it as a mismatch and ask for clarification. Carriers operate under their legal entity and their USDOT name must align.
Owner address versus registered address
This is where the scam signals show up. Pull the registered address from the Secretary of State record. This is where the state mails official notices. Pull the owner’s address from the filing or the officers’ section. Pull the company’s principal place of business if disclosed. Are all three the same? If not, which one does not match and why?
A registered agent at a UCC service office in Delaware is normal. A registered agent in Miami and an owner in Portland is normal. But if the owner is listed at a UPS box, a residential address in a different state, or an address that belongs to someone else, or if the address does not exist at all, you have a control problem. The person who signed the loan application may not actually control the entity.
Run the owner names through OFAC. If there is a sanctions match, the deal is over. No exceptions.
UCC and recent lien activity
Check for UCC filings under the entity name in the Secretary of State records (or in the county where the entity is registered, depending on the state). If there are secured lender claims, note who holds them, the date of the filing, and the lapse date. A recent UCC filing means the company has already pledged assets. If you are lending against equipment and the equipment is already collateral for another loan, you have a priority problem. Confirm with the existing lien holder whether they will subordinate or release.
An old UCC filing with a lapse date in the past is not a current liability, but it signals prior credit use. If there are five expired UCC filings and the company is applying for a first equipment loan, that tells a story about credit history and default patterns.
The outlier question
In those final 20 seconds, ask: Does anything look wrong? A brand-new entity applying for a $500K fleet loan is an outlier. A company with three officers and seven different addresses is an outlier. An LLC filed yesterday with a USDOT number from 2015 is an outlier. Outliers are not automatic declines, but they are automatic second looks. They are also where fraud concentrates.
The 90-second pass is a funnel. Status, tax ID, beneficial owner, fleet records, addresses, and UCC stack up quickly. Most applications clear them. Some do not. The ones that fail the 90-second test rarely become credit approvals.
Bottom line
The first 90 seconds are a filter, not a full underwriting. You are hunting for disqualifiers: dead entities, missing beneficial owners, unsafe carriers, control mismatches, and lien collisions. Once you clear those, you move to financials, personal credit, and the rest. But until you verify that the entity is alive, the owner is real, and the collateral is free, you are not ready to underwrite a deal. A systematic order cuts your time and catches the risks that kill loans after funding.