Submissions total about $17.8 billion in requested funding for the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program, with an average loan size of $81,000.
A former economist says high-ranking officials engaged in “legally risky” behavior to downplay consumer harm; online payments and contactless transactions jumped in the first quarter, and some think the new habits will stick.
The Small Business Administration's last-minute plan to temporarily block larger banks from the relief loan program is another example of the agency changing the rules midstream, critics said.
The Small Business Administration has processed more than 476,000 applications from struggling small-business owners, but lenders say access to the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program has been spotty.
Portal crashes, technology glitches, last-minute changes in guidance, renewed suspicions about loan dispersal: Meet the new Paycheck Protection Program, same as the old Paycheck Protection Program.
Community banks that have used the Paycheck Protection Program to help businesses ride out the coronavirus outbreak are looking to turn that goodwill into deeper loan and deposit relationships down the road.
Queued-up loans. Extra bankers. Government tweaks to promote fairness. None of these precautionary measures has been enough for the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program to avoid the pitfalls of the first.
As banks accept new applications for the paycheck program, they are dogged by complaints that they prioritized wealthy borrowers. But lenders likely fast-tracked clients they knew best under difficult circumstances, observers say.
