Ever since the U.S. government launched its emergency lending program for small businesses on April 3, there have been complaints that bigger companies had their loans approved and disbursed more quickly, and there is now evidence to back up those complaints, the Associated Press reported. Its analysis of the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) $659 billion Paycheck Protection Program shows that nearly a third of the loans approved in the program’s first week ranged from $150,000 to $10 million, the maximum allowed. In a second round of funding that began April 27, such loans made up just 7.4% of the total. The average loan size fell from $257,240 on April 10 to nearly $105,000 as of July 17, according to the SBA. The PPP made very low-interest loans available to any business — or any franchisee of a business — with under 500 employees. Larger companies with connections to major national or regional banks got priority treatment in the program’s initial phase, while many smaller businesses said they were turned away because the banks required them to have a checking account, a credit card and a previous loan to be considered. Some small businesses submitted an application but then heard nothing. Many learned not from their bank but via news reports that the initial $349 billion in funding had run out in less than two weeks.
