Character and past performance matters a lot in the world of lending as every business owner knows. Lenders can only rely so much on personal interviews and evaluation of self-reported background information to judge character, so a personal credit score becomes a proxy. Most banks have hard cut-off points on personal credit scores for small business applicants. CEDF, since it is not subjected to the same kinds of state and federal regulation as banks are, has more latitude to judge a low perso...