The Small Business Administration needs to clear thousands of Paycheck Protection Program loans now being held up within the agency’s system, a coalition of lender groups requested in a letter to lawmakers March 5.
Those loans, flagged by a tightened set of automated checks by the agency, could mean many small business are shut out of the program as the PPP deadline of March 31 fast approaches, groups including the American Bankers Association, the Credit Union National Association and the Independent Community Bankers of America, said in a letter to the House and Senate small business committees.
“With the approaching authorization expiration date of March 31, 2021, we have serious concerns that many of these loans currently tagged with a hold code will remain outstanding through this date,” the groups wrote. We also have concerns that new loans uploaded to SBA’s portal this month will be outstanding when the portal shuts down. As a result, those businesses that should have been eligible to receive PPP funds – including those in hardest hit communities who may not have taken advantage of PPP last year – will be locked out and unable to access this much needed emergency capital.”
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