A business must be engaged in an activity SBA determines as acceptable for financial assistance from a federal provider. The following list of businesses types are not eligible for assistance because of the activities they conduct:

• Financial businesses primarily engaged in the business of lending, such as banks, finance companies, payday lenders, some leasing companies and factors (pawn shops, although engaged in lending, may qualify in some circumstances)
• Businesses owned by developers and landlords that do not actively use or occupy the assets acquired or improved with the loan proceeds (except when the property is leased to the business at zero profit for the property’s owners)
• Life insurance companies
• Businesses located in a foreign country (businesses in the U.S. owned by aliens may qualify)
• Businesses engaged in pyramid sale distribution plans, where a participant’s primary incentive is based on the sales made by an ever-increasing number of participants
• Businesses deriving more than one-third of gross annual revenue from legal gambling activities
• Businesses engaged in any illegal activity
• Private clubs and businesses that limit the number of memberships for reasons other than capacity
• Government-owned entities
• Businesses principally engaged in teaching, instructing, counseling or indoctrinating religion or religious beliefs, whether in a religious or secular setting
• Consumer and marketing cooperatives (producer cooperatives are eligible)
• Loan packagers earning more than one third of their gross annual revenue from packaging SBA loans
• Businesses in which the lender or CDC, or any of its associates owns an equity interest
• Businesses that present live performances of an indecent sexual nature or derive directly or indirectly more 2.5 percent of gross revenue through the sale of products or services, or the presentation of any depictions or displays, of an indecent sexual nature
• Businesses primarily engaged in political or lobbying activities
  Speculative businesses (such as oil exploration)

There are also eligibility factors for financial assistance based on the activities of the owners and the historical operation of the business. As such, the business cannot have been:

• A business that caused the government to have incurred a loss related to a prior business debt
• A business owned 20 percent or more by a person associated with a different business that caused the government to have incurred a loss related to a prior business debt
• A business owned 20 percent or more by a person who is incarcerated, on probation, on parole, or has been indicted for a felony or a crime of moral depravity