PROVIDENCE – More than 6,800 Rhode Island small businesses secured a total of $550.4 million for payroll relief under second-round funding for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, according to an update from the U.S. Department of the Treasury published on on Sunday.
The update reflected loans approved through May 1 – five days after the SBA began accepting second-round applications. Nationally, $175.7 billion of the $310 billion federal allocation has been spent, benefiting 2.2 million applicants.
The average loan size was $79,000, less than half of the $206,000 average under first-round funding. Federal officials pointed to the smaller loan amounts as evidence that the program is serving smaller-sized businesses after facing criticism that the initial funding benefited larger companies at the expense of smaller businesses that needed it most.
The second round of funding also included a $60 million carveout for community banks, community development financial institutions and microlenders. Over a third of loans approved – 850,000 – were made by lenders with less than $10 billion in assets, with 500,000 of those processed by banks and financial institutions with less than $1 billion in assets.
More than 6,000 Rhode Island businesses received a collective $1.2 billion under the first round of funding.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Lavin@PBN.com.
