From "Collateral" to "Business Potential": How Certified Business Loan Promotion Support Agencies Are Changing the Future of SME Finance

On May 25, 2026, the "Act on Promotion of Business Loans, etc." was fully enforced.

This law is not just about adding one new loan system.
It is a major institutional reform aimed at reviewing the long-standing lending practices in Japan's SME finance that rely on "real estate collateral" and "personal guarantees by business owners," and shifting toward finance that focuses on the value of the company itself—that is, its "business potential."

At the core of this is the subject of this article,Certified Business Loan Promotion Support Agency.

Although the name is a bit long, its role is clear.
It is a specialized agency that stands between financial institutions and businesses to visualize a company's business viability and potential, facilitate dialogue, and support more convincing financing.

In a sense, they are the "translators," "partners," and "aids to discernment" in the future of SME finance.

Why did this system become necessary?

In Japan's SME finance, real estate collateral and personal guarantees by business owners have long played an important role.

Of course, collateral and guarantees have the function of reducing the risk for financial institutions and making it easier to execute loans.
However, on the other hand, excessive reliance on these leads to the following problems.

For example, even if a company possesses excellent technology, a customer base, brand, data, software, or know-how, it becomes difficult to raise sufficient funds if it lacks tangible assets such as real estate.

Also, the heavy burden of personal guarantees by business owners can make it difficult for owners to take steps toward new investments, business succession, or taking on new challenges.

"Even though I borrowed money for the company, in the end, I have to carry the burden on my personal life."
While this structure supports the resolve of business owners, it has also sometimes acted as a brake on innovation.

However, modern corporate value cannot necessarily be measured only by land and buildings.
Rather, there are increasing instances where a company's strengths reside in intangible assets such as technical capabilities, human resources, organizational strength, relationships with customers, intellectual property, business processes, and brand.

If financial practices do not keep up with this change, necessary funds will not reach growing companies, startups, and excellent local businesses.

That is where the Business Loan Promotion Act and one of its important mechanisms,Corporate Value Collateral Right, came into play.

What is a Corporate Value Collateral Right?

Simply put, a Corporate Value Collateral Right is a new system that treats the "value of the entire business," including a company's tangible and intangible assets, as collateral.

In conventional lending, the focus of collateral was on real estate or individual assets.
The axis of evaluation also tended to be placed on "disposal value," or how much could be recovered by selling it in the event of an emergency.

In contrast, with the Corporate Value Collateral Right, the cash flow that a company will generate in the future and the value maintained by continuing as a business are emphasized.

In other words, what is being looked at is different.

If traditional lending is about looking at "how much the parts would sell for if we broke it down," then the corporate value security interest is a system that looks at "how much value this machine can generate if it keeps running."

In many cases, a business generates more value by continuing to operate than by being dismantled and sold off.
While this may seem obvious, translating it into financial practice is by no means simple.

That is precisely why we need specialized entities to evaluate businesses and support dialogue between financial institutions and business operators.
That is the role of the Certified Business Loan Promotion Support Agency.

The Role of Certified Business Loan Promotion Support Agencies

Certified Business Loan Promotion Support Agencies act as intermediaries between business operators and financial institutions, providing support to facilitate business-based lending.

Their main roles can be broadly categorized into four areas.

The first is promoting dialogue and mutual understanding.

They help business operators organize their strengths, management resources, financial status, and future plans so they can explain them appropriately to financial institutions.
From the perspective of financial institutions, this makes it easier to understand the actual state and future potential of the company.

In the field of lending, it is not enough for a business operator to simply say, "We are a good company."
On the other hand, financial institutions may not be able to see a company's true strengths by looking only at the numbers in financial statements.

Bridging that gap is the role of the support agency.

The second is providing information.

They provide clear information to business operators and financial institutions regarding business-based lending, corporate value security interests, public systems, and related support measures.
New systems do not get utilized just by existing.
They only become meaningful once they are known, understood, and integrated into practice.

The third is human resource development and the dissemination of best practices.

They conduct training and share practical knowledge so that financial institutions and experts can appropriately handle business evaluations and corporate value security interests.
It is also important to accumulate advanced case studies and expand them horizontally.

The fourth is continuous monitoring after lending.

Lending does not end with execution.
Business plans need to be reviewed in response to environmental changes.
It is important to regularly check management conditions, revise plans as necessary, and continue the dialogue with financial institutions.

By having support agencies walk alongside them in this process, lending moves closer to becoming a form of finance that supports corporate growth and reconstruction, rather than just providing funds.

What is required is "neutrality" and the "ability to see the business"

Certified Business Loan Promotion Support Agencies are required to have a high level of expertise.

The ability to read financial statements is, of course, necessary.
However, that alone is not enough.

Technology, intellectual property, business models, brands, customer bases, human resources, organizational culture, and local credit.
How do we grasp these qualitative values and explain how they connect to future profitability?

This is where the expertise of support agencies comes into play.

Furthermore, neutrality that does not favor either the financial institution or the business operator is essential.
If a support agency advocates for the interests of only one side, trust in the system will be shaken.

For business operators, provide necessary advice, including difficult truths.
For financial institutions, convey the essence of the business that cannot be seen through numbers alone.
Performing both of these tasks with integrity is required.

In other words, this is not merely "helping to obtain a loan."
It is about building a foundation for companies and financial institutions to discuss the future while looking at the same map.

A step toward finance that does not rely on personal guarantees from business owners

A major feature of loans secured by a corporate value collateral right is that the use of personal guarantees from business owners is strictly limited.

This has a very significant meaning for business owners.

While personal guarantees can foster caution in management decisions, they also cause excessive risk aversion.
New capital investment, business succession, M&A, second startups, and new challenges.
Even if these are decisions necessary to increase corporate value, there are times when owners cannot take the step forward when considering the impact on their personal assets.

Of course, eliminating guarantees does not solve everything.
Rather, because you are not relying on guarantees, it becomes even more important to correctly disclose the actual state of the business, refine plans, and maintain a stance of continuous monitoring.

It is not that "things become easier because there are no guarantees," but rather that "the business itself is put to the test precisely because it does not rely on guarantees."

For business owners, it can be said that this is a system where the nature of their resolve changes.

The concept of "not destroying the business" even in the event of default

What is particularly important in the concept of the corporate value collateral right is the point of attempting to maintain the business as a whole as much as possible, even in the event of an emergency.

In conventional collateral execution, the idea of selling individual assets to recover funds tended to be central.
However, a company's value does not lie solely in its individual assets.

Employee experience, relationships of trust with business partners, customer bases, brands, and know-how.
These things are lost all at once if the business is broken apart.

With the corporate value collateral right, the focus is on maintaining value by transferring the business as a whole to a sponsor or similar entity, while preserving employment and business relationships as much as possible.

This is important not only for creditor recovery but also for employees, business partners, and the local economy.

Especially in regional areas, the closure of a single company can affect local employment, suppliers, and the entire commercial sphere.
A perspective that views companies not as isolated entities, but as nodes in the regional economy is necessary.

Possibilities in regional finance and business succession

This system is not just for startups or rapidly growing companies.

Long-established local businesses, manufacturers with superior technology, community-based distributors, inns, construction firms, and service providers.
There is significant potential for these companies as well.

Especially in business succession scenarios, a company's value is often not fully captured by financial statements alone.
Long-standing customer relationships, local reputation, skilled personnel, and unique technology or know-how are truly intangible assets.

If these can be properly evaluated, communicated to financial institutions, and linked to succession or growth investments, it can prevent business closures and help protect the local economy.

The term "regional revitalization" is often used, but it is not just flashy slogans that support the local economy.
It is the small and medium-sized enterprises that continue their daily business, protect jobs, and build trust with their business partners.

Can finance properly support the future potential of these companies?
This is where the practical value of this system lies.

The New Role Required of Professionals

Various professionals and organizations are envisioned as Certified Business Loan Promotion Support Agencies, including tax accountants, certified public accountants, SME management consultants, chambers of commerce and industry, credit guarantee corporations, and government-affiliated financial institutions.

Among them, the collaboration of different areas of expertise becomes particularly important.

Tax accountants and certified public accountants have strengths in financial data and accounting accuracy.
SME management consultants have strengths in analyzing management resources, business strategy, and organizing business models.
Administrative scriveners and legal experts can provide support in terms of contracts, permits, procedures, and compliance.
Financial institutions handle the practical aspects of capital supply and risk management.

It is important that these are not fragmented, but rather collaborate toward the same goal.

What is needed from support professionals in the future is not just the ability to create documents.
It is the ability to verbalize and quantify a company's "earning power" and organize it into a form that stakeholders can understand and accept.

In other words, it is the ability to translate the future vision in a business owner's mind into a business plan that financial institutions can evaluate.

This is quite a sophisticated task.
At the very least, simply copying financial statements and saying, "It's increased compared to last year," is not enough.
If that is all, the system will be a wasted opportunity.

Future Challenges

Just because a system has been created does not mean that practical operations will change immediately.

There are at least three challenges for the future.

First is the sharing of skills to quantify qualitative information.

It is necessary to go beyond describing a company's strengths as "amazing technology" or "the president has a good personality," and instead organize how these connect to future sales, profits, and cash flow.

Second is a mechanism to make ongoing support after a loan sustainable.

Continuing not only to create business plans but also to provide post-loan monitoring and improvement support requires significant manpower, time, and cost.
It is crucial to determine how to utilize public support and financial measures to continue providing assistance without placing an excessive burden on business operators.

Third is the connection with existing regional systems.

How can the corporate value security interest be combined with credit guarantee association systems, municipal loan programs, management guarantee release support, business succession support, and expert dispatch systems?
There is room here for practitioners to exercise their ingenuity.

Systems do not function on legal text alone.
They only become useful to companies once they are assembled into a form that can be used in the field.

Conclusion: An Era Where Finance Looks at the Future of Companies

The system for certified business loan promotion support agencies has the potential to become a major turning point for Japanese-style financial intermediation.

If finance until now has viewed companies primarily based on past performance and collateral value, future finance will require the ability to assess the potential of a business.

Of course, the future is uncertain.
Business plans may not always go as expected.
That is precisely why evidence-based projections and continuous dialogue are necessary, rather than mere optimism.

From "lending because there is collateral" to "supporting because the business has value."

This shift cannot be achieved by financial institutions alone.
It only begins to move when business operators, financial institutions, experts, government, and regional support agencies each fulfill their respective roles.

Certified business loan promotion support agencies serve as the bridge for this.

The value of SMEs is not limited to the numbers in their financial statements.
It includes the technology, human resources, credit, customer relationships, and regional significance accumulated on the ground.
I hope to see the spread of finance that properly evaluates these assets and connects them to the next stage of growth or succession.

Thinking about a company's future based on the business itself, rather than collateral.
The first step toward that is beginning now.

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