Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Friday said that the central bank will open the doors of its emergency lending program for midsize businesses in a matter of days, Politico reported. Under the “Main Street” lending program, the Fed will buy the majority of a bank loan to a company with up to 15,000 employees or up to $5 billion in annual revenue. Powell underscored the difficulty of designing such a program because the companies in that size range are “extraordinarily diverse” and bank loans don’t have the same level of standardization as bonds. Powell also held open the possibility that the program would be further broadened; currently the minimum is $500,000 for new loans, and the maximum is $200 million for expansions of existing loans. “I can imagine us expanding on either end,” he said. “It’s all about creating a context in which employees, a climate in which employees will have the best chance to either keep their job or go back to their job or ultimately find a new job,” Powell said. The Fed chief also said that the central bank plans to hold the four-year loans to maturity but doesn’t intend to deal directly with borrowers in case of missed payments.
