The U.S. Small Business Administration is launching a streamlined application portal to allow borrowers with\u00a0Paycheck Protection Program loans $150,000 or less through participating lenders to apply for forgiveness directly through the SBA. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe SBA\u2019s new streamlined application portal will simplify forgiveness for millions of our smallest businesses\u2014including many sole proprietors\u2014who used funds from our Paycheck Protection Program loans to survive the pandemic,\u201d\u00a0said Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman. \u201cThe vast majority of businesses waiting for forgiveness have loans under $150,000. These entrepreneurs are busy running their businesses and are challenged by an overly complicated forgiveness process. We need to deliver forgiveness more efficiently so they can get back to enlivening our Main Streets, sustaining our neighborhoods and fueling our nation\u2019s economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
This new change will help rush relief to over 6.5 million smallest of small businesses. The new forgiveness platform will begin accepting applications from borrowers on Aug. 4, 2021. Lenders are required to opt-in to this program through\u00a0https:\/\/directforgiveness.sba.gov. <\/p>\n
In addition to the technology platform, the SBA is standing up a PPP customer service team to answer questions and directly assist borrowers with their forgiveness applications. Borrowers that need assistance or have questions should call (877) 552-2692, Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm EST.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis initiative will allow PPP borrowers to put their concerns of achieving full forgiveness behind them and focus on operating and growing their businesses again,\u201d\u00a0said Patrick Kelley, associate administrator for SBA\u2019s Office of Capital Access.\u00a0\u201cWe are pleased to be able to assist financial institutions across the U.S. in processing forgiveness applications for small business owners.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
PROGRAM SUMMARY<\/strong> In 2021: The average loan size was ~$42 thousand (compared to $101 thousand in 2020)<\/p>\n 96% of loans went to businesses with fewer than 20 employees (compared to just 87% in 2020.)<\/p>\n 32% of loans went to businesses in LMI communities (compared to just 24% in 2020)<\/p>\n Direct forgiveness summary<\/strong> \u201cAs one of the leading PPP lenders in the nation, Customers Bank is proud to partner with SBA to deliver responsive digital loan forgiveness service to the small business borrowers,\u201d said Sam Sidhu, President & CEO of the bank. \u201cThe streamlined and efficient SBA PPP loan forgiveness portal will help borrowers and lenders move forward with economic growth and job creation following the pandemic. We encourage other lenders to join Customers Bank and opt-in to the SBA portal.\u201d<\/p>\n Established by the CARES Act in 2020, the PPP was among the first COVID-19 small business economic aid programs and provided more than\u00a0$798 billion in economic\u00a0relief to small businesses and nonprofits across the nation, keeping\u00a0employees working, and helping businesses come back stronger than ever. <\/p>\n Other programs include Economic Injury Disaster Loan, EIDL Advance, Targeted EIDL Advance, Supplemental EIDL Advance, Restaurant Revitalization Fund, Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, and SBA Debt Relief program. To learn more about these programs, visit\u00a0www.sba.gov\/relief. (PR)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.S. Small Business Administration is launching a streamlined application portal to allow borrowers with\u00a0Paycheck…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":349014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1204],"class_list":["post-348949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-sba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOverall, the SBA and lenders have worked to originate over 11.7 million loans totaling nearly $800 billion in relief to over 8.5 million small businesses.<\/p>\n
\nSBA approved over 6.5M loans totaling over $275B<\/p>\n
\nOver 600 banks have opted in to direct forgiveness, enabling over 2.17mm borrowers to apply through the portal (This represents 30% of loans $150,000 or less that have not yet submitted for forgiveness)<\/p>\n