SBA processes $1.3B for R.I. small businesses as PPP program nears depletion

PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration has processed more than 8,700 Paycheck Protection Program loans for roughly $1.3 billion to Rhode Island small businesses, state Director Mark Hayward said Thursday morning during PBN’s Coronavirus Business Stimulus Virtual Summit.

Hayward said that there was still funding available at the time of the webinar and he said the SBA will continue to process loans until money is not available.

Hayward commended local lenders for their hard work processing loans, often working beyond business hours to submit loans. He noted that many of the loans processed were from community banks.

R.I. Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor, also a panelist in the webinar, said the state thinks it is essential for Congress to replenish the $349 billion PPP program, adding that the program was projected to be depleted Thursday. 

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The Paycheck Protection Program offers small businesses low-interest loans that are forgivable if certain requirements are met.

Pryor said that due to the complexity of the program, some banks were not able to get off the starting line when it was nationally initiated on April 3, which meant that there were individual businesses in the queue that were behind by no fault of their own. He also noted that some small businesses didn’t have a current relationship with a lending institution, also putting them at a disadvantage.

Hayward said that the SBA would work within its bounds to distribute funds as directed by the federal government – and did not want to speculate whether the program would be given additional funds or how the program may change if that happened. He added that he had spoken with members of the R.I. congressional delegation who had said they were working to replenish the fund.

Data on how many PPP applications have been filed in the state was not immediately available, Hayward said.