Congressional leaders and White House officials are closing in on a new round of funding in order to help those impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Chris Giamo, TD Bank Head of Commercial Bank, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss.

Video Transcript

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Congressional leaders and the White House say they are, quote, very close to signing off on a new round of relief funding aimed to help millions of people hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. A big part of that, more money for small businesses and the Payroll Protection Program, which we know ran out of money in the middle of last week.

Want to talk about this now with Chris Giamo. He is head of the commercial bank at TD Bank. Good morning, Chris. Thanks for being with us. First off, where do things stand with those small-business loans at your bank? Are you in the process of going through applications? Have any business has been given money yet?

CHRIS GIAMO: Yeah, well, good morning, and it's good to be with both of you this morning. So at TD Bank, we, like many banks, were a very strong participant in this important program and really saw incredible demand from our client base-- seeing an extraordinary amount of applications. We're proud that we were able to secure funding for over 26,000 of our clients, being really one of the top-five banks as far as customers reached through this program and one of the top-10 banks in funding throughout the country.

BRIAN SOZZI: Chris, when you talk to these small businesses, what is their plan to restart their business?

CHRIS GIAMO: You know, it's a great question. It's something that we're really focused on. You know, we kind of pride ourselves as giving trusted-advisor advice to our clients. And this program, while it's critical, is just one measure. It's one tool for them to kind of provide a gap before they can reopen. So I think it's critical that businesses do focus on their planning around this phased reopening of the country and how their businesses are going to participate in that.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Chris, I'd love to get your thoughts on some criticism this program has received, saying that a lot of larger businesses, ones that we wouldn't consider small businesses, were getting some of the funding, most notably Ruth's Chris Steak House, Shake Shack. They got a $10 million loan. They are out this morning saying they're going to give back that money after a lot of criticism. But, you know, was that a loophole in the system here that allowed companies as large as those to get money from the small-business loan program?

CHRIS GIAMO: You know, it's a good question, and I think anytime you're trying to stand something up that is so large and important in a quick amount of time, there's always going to be some unintended consequences.

I think two things. I think, for the most part, these dollars are going to the intended use, to keep payrolls open and keep people off of unemployment and just bridge companies for this two-, three-month period until they can have a phased reopening.

I do think there's some responsibility on the businesses to be good corporate citizens in this and if they don't need the money or they weren't necessarily impacted by this pandemic to a point where they need government assistance, they really shouldn't apply.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Also, we know that Congress says they're close to another round of stimulus here, and in that round of stimulus would be more relief for small businesses. What would your message to lawmakers be right now? What would you at TD and other banks around the country want to see, need to see in that legislation?

CHRIS GIAMO: Well, I think this was a very important program, and as I said, I think it really is a bridge for businesses to bridge themselves till reopen. So I think it's critically important.

I would hope that the program is reopened and refunded. And I think if they could keep complexities out of it-- you know, this, again, was stood up very quickly, and it took a while for banks to be organized to process these applications in the volumes they were receiving them. And any new additions or filters that go into the program could cause further delays and complexities.

Most banks right now-- like I said, we're very proud that we reached a lot of our clients. We don't want one client left behind. And I think all of the organizations definitely have a backlog of applications that they would be ready to process in an expedited way if the program reopened in the same form that it was initiated.

BRIAN SOZZI: Chris, a lot of sources that I've talked to suggest even despite the help from the government, we're looking at a potential wave of bankruptcies across many sectors looking out over the next two to three months. Are you seeing that when you talk to clients? Is that looking like an option?

CHRIS GIAMO: You know, it's probably too soon to say, but I would say many of these entrepreneurial businesses really are not built and they don't have the balance sheet to withstand 1/12 or 2/12 of their gross revenues to either be significantly impacted or, in some cases, entirely go away. So, you know, as I said earlier, this program and other state and local programs are going to be critical.

That being said, I think the business owners themselves are going to have to really go into crisis management mode and see how they can take their businesses and pivot so they can deal with this in the short term but how they position themselves for the longer term. But I do think there's going to be a long economic impact to businesses, both on the commercial front as well as our consumers.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: All right, Chris Giamo, head of commercial bank at TD Bank, thanks for your time this morning. Good luck with the program.

CHRIS GIAMO: Thank you.