The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston yesterday released a list of lenders that have signed up for the central bank’s midsize-business lending program and are willing to make loans to new customers through the initiative. Noticeably absent are most of the nation’s biggest banks, the New York Times reported. Only Bank of America has so far agreed to participate and take on new clients, based on the Boston Fed’s release, while lenders like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo are not listed. Only about 90 banks agreed to publicly say they are willing to lend to new customers and were listed. Most states have only a handful of such lenders, with seven listed in California and nine in New York, based on the Boston Fed’s release. Banks can also participate in the program by making loans to existing clients. While thousands of banks are eligible to sign up, about 400 have registered or were in the process of doing so as of Wednesday, the Boston Fed said. The Fed has not released a full list of all banks participating in the program. The Fed’s midsize-business initiative, called the Main Street Lending Program, opened for lender registration in June and became fully operational on Monday. The Fed first said that it would set up a Main Street option in late March, but it had never tried to support midsize businesses before, and Chair Jerome H. Powell has said designing the program was a challenge. Even after multiple revisions, thousands of comments and extensive congressional grilling, it remains unclear how extensively the program will be used. Many lenders report that they are hearing of only limited borrower interest in the program.
