The deadline for small businesses to apply for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) Loan is Tuesday, June 30. To speed the application process, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has reconfigured its Lender Match online portal to quickly connect borrowers with PPP lenders.
“The SBA has streamlined its lending processes and added more flexibility for borrowers that make these forgivable loans even more appealing,” said Regional Administrator Justin Crossie, South Central Region. “I’m urging small business and eligible organizations to apply now to access the more than $128 billion still available.”
Once a business owner submits their information on the Lender Match platform, within two days they receive emails from lenders willing to accept their PPP application. A PPP application can be started directly from these emails.
PPP loans can fund employee paychecks and other small business expenses. If spent according to the more flexible guidelines, the loan is eligible for forgiveness and paid by the federal government.
Most PPP loans are going to smaller firms. The average loan size is $110,000, and two-thirds of PPP loans are for $50,000 and under.
The SBA has also placed special focus on reaching underserved small businesses. More than one million loans have been disbursed by lenders who specialize in helping underserved communities, and 45% of PPP loans have been made in low-income counties.
With the enactment of the PPP Flexibility Act, it extends the covered period for loan forgiveness from eight weeks after the date of disbursement to 24 weeks, providing substantially greater flexibility for borrowers to qualify for loan forgiveness.
It also adjusts the minimum amount of loan proceeds borrowers use for payroll costs to qualify for forgiveness from 75% down to 60%.
A PPP loan is meant to keep employees on payroll and help businesses return to the way they were before February 15, 2020. However, the Flexibility Act provides a safe harbor for firms having difficulty rehiring employees or finding new qualified employees through December 31, 2020.
Additionally, the SBA launched a dedicated online tool for small businesses and non-profits to be matched with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs), Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs), Certified Development Companies (CDCs), Farm Credit System lenders, Microlenders, as well as traditional smaller asset size lenders in the PPP.
As of June 20, the SBA has approved more than 4.6 million PPP loans valued at nearly $515 billion. The following is a summary of approved PPP loans in the South Central Region:
PPP information and forms are translated into 17 languages including Spanish, Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese), French, German, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Tagalog and Vietnamese.
More information about the PPP – including how to find a PPP lender, application forms, and the new simplified forgiveness and easy forgiveness applications – is available at <www.sba.gov/paycheckprotection>.