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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.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are expressing interest in expanding a tax credit designed to help keep workers connected to their jobs, a sign that the idea could find its way into the next coronavirus relief package, The Hill reported. For much of the pandemic, certain businesses have been eligible to take advantage of a refundable payroll tax credit of up to $5,000 per employee for wages and health care benefits paid through the end of the year. Lawmakers are now offering proposals to increase the amount of the credit and make other changes in an effort to keep more workers connected to their employers. There are many uncertainties about another coronavirus relief package, ranging from the timing of the next bill to how lawmakers address issues such as federal aid to states, liability protection for businesses and a $600 per week increase in unemployment benefits that’s set to expire at the end of July. But there are lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who are supportive of the employee retention tax credit (ERTC) that was included in the $2.2 trillion CARES Act signed by President Trump on March 27. Those lawmakers say they’re open to enhancing the tax credit in an effort to allow businesses to keep their employees.

Vision Group Holdings, the management company behind two leading Lasik surgery brands, filed for bankruptcy protection and launched a sale process aimed at placing the business into new hands as its surgical centers reopen, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Carrying $160 million in debt, Vision, the holding company operator of the Lasik Vision Institute and TLC Laser Eye Center chains, said that it filed for chapter 11 on Friday over the “temporary and devastating shutdown” of the company’s roughly 120 Lasik centers due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In a sworn declaration, interim Chief Executive Lisa Melamed said Vision has fired more than 800 employees, roughly two-thirds of its workforce, when elective surgeries were effectively banned across much of the country. As stay-at-home restrictions are now gradually easing, Vision is hopeful the bankruptcy will provide liquidity to reopen most locations “and pave the way to a successful sale of the company’s assets,” she said.

The Paycheck Protection Program, the federal government’s ambitious effort to keep workers at small businesses off the unemployment rolls through the worst of the pandemic, has provided a financial safety net to more than four million companies, the New York Times reported. For many, the money was a lifeline. But the Covid-19 pandemic still has many cities shut, consumers’ habits have changed and recharging the economy may take years. Small companies, which employ nearly half of America’s workers who don’t work in government, typically have thin margins and scant savings. Some fear they won’t survive without further help. Even for those who got help, the program’s rollout was messy and chaotic, and Congress is arguing over proposed changes. The program offered small companies a loan that would be converted to a grant if they used most of the money for eight weeks of payroll. The earliest loan recipients are near the end of their eight-week relief period.

A class-action lawsuit filed on Friday is accusing the Trump administration of illegally seizing student loan borrowers' tax refunds even after Congress halted government debt collection amid the coronavirus pandemic, The Hill reported. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington by the groups Student Defense and Democracy Forward accuses Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos of defying Congress's mandate and seizing money that student loan defaulters desperately need. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Kori Cole, a Colorado woman whose family tax refund of nearly $7,000 was seized in April to go towards her defaulted student loans. The Department of Education can request that the Department of Treasury offset tax refunds for those who owe money on their student loans, and the federal government has agreements with most states that allow them to offset state tax refunds as well. But under the CARES Act signed into law in March, the Treasury Department was forbidden from conducting any involuntary debt collection until September, including seizing any tax refunds. In March, after President Trump declared a national emergency over the pandemic, DeVos ordered a halt to tax refund offsets and for $1.8 billion that had been seized from borrowers to be returned. It's not entirely clear how many student loan borrowers are still having their refunds offset, but the lawsuit cites a statistic on the Treasury Department's website that appears to show that it has collected $18.8 million from about 11,000 tax refunds since April 1.

Gym owner 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide Inc. is preparing for a potential bankruptcy to cut its debt as it re-opens locations across the country with precautions in place for social distancing, Bloomberg News reported. The operator of more than 430 mid-tier gyms is in talks with investors over the terms of a loan that would keep the company operating through a court restructuring. The proposed chapter 11 filing would cut 24 Hour’s borrowings by swapping debt for equity and handing control to lenders. Even before the pandemic, the company, which has more than $1.3 billion of debt stemming from a leveraged buyout by AEA Investors and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in 2014, was struggling to hold onto customers lured by gyms that were either cheaper or fancier.

The U.S. central bank now has a stake in the fortunes of a broad swath of corporate America after buying about $1.3 billion of bond funds with debt issued by firms in all walks of the world’s biggest economy, from Apple Inc. to a clutch of companies in bankruptcy, Reuters reported. The details on holdings in the Fed’s Secondary Market Corporate Credit Facility, one of nearly a dozen emergency programs the Fed has rolled out since March to respond to the coronavirus crisis, were published on Friday. The Fed’s largest investment-grade fund holding — iShares iBoxx US Dollar Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF — contains 30 Apple bonds giving the Fed about $5.7 million of exposure to the maker of iPhones through that ETF alone as of May 19. Apple is also a holding in other ETFs the Fed bought. The largest of the facility’s junk bond fund holdings — iShares iBoxx High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG.P) — gives the Fed around $25,000 of exposure to three companies that have filed for bankruptcy since the health crisis erupted, including $14,000 to car rental company Hertz, $10,000 to retailer JC Penney, and $1,500 to department store operator Neiman Marcus. All told the Fed made 158 purchases of shares in 15 exchange-traded funds from May 12 and May 18, the data showed.

The company of John Barrett, known for styling celebrities such as Hillary Clinton and Martha Stewart, filed for bankruptcy in New York, Bloomberg News reported. John Barrett Inc. sought protection from its creditors a little more than a year after leaving its perch on the penthouse floor of Bergdorf Goodman, where Barrett cut and colored the hair of New York’s well-heeled elite for more than two decades. The company listed as much as $10 million in assets and up to $50,000 in liabilities, according to the bankruptcy filing. An affiliated entity, Mezz57th LLC, also filed for chapter 11, listing between $1 million and $10 million in liabilities. Barrett reopened his salon at a new location on 57th Street after leaving Bergdorf Goodman. It temporarily closed on March 17 due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to an Instagram post. The case is John Barrett Inc., 20-11318, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

As U.S. businesses reopen after weeks of pandemic lockdowns, many have been posting coronavirus disclaimers or requiring employees and patrons to sign waivers before entering, Reuters reported. From hair salons and recreation centers to stock exchanges and wedding photographers, the notices have sprung up across the country, asking guests to acknowledge they might contract a disease that has so far killed over 100,000 Americans. Companies are using signs, forms and website postings as a shield against lawsuits, but the measures do not prevent people from seeking damages due to negligence, the same way someone might sue after falling on a slippery floor or getting sick from walls covered in lead paint, experts said. Lawyers said it would be tough to prove that a business caused a customer’s illness, but concerns are so intense that a waiver may soon become the new normal. Entities including the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City, a real estate agency in Arizona, a racecar speedway in Seinsgrove, Pennsylvania, and the New York Stock Exchange have introduced waivers disavowing responsibility for anyone who might contract the disease onsite, Reuters has learned.

Midprice gym chain 24 Hour Fitness Worldwide Inc. is seeking a financing package to stay afloat through a possible bankruptcy filing that could come within weeks, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The company, which is based in San Ramon, Calif., and is owned by private-equity firm AEA Investors and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, has been shopping for a potential bankruptcy loan of as much as $200 million. “We are considering a broad range of options to ensure the long term sustainability and success of 24 Hour Fitness and we are not going to comment publicly on our strategic plans. We look forward to continuing the reopening of our clubs,” the company said in an email. The company has been working with restructuring lawyers at Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, some of the people familiar with the matter said. The gym chain was struggling before the coronavirus pandemic forced its 430 locations to close their doors temporarily, burning cash and losing membership, according to a Moody’s Investors Service report and an earnings report reviewed by WSJ Pro Bankruptcy.