PROVIDENCE – Demand for forgivable payroll loans continues at a steady pace among Rhode Island small businesses, with roughly $50 million in Paycheck Protection Program loans approved for 1,000 recipients in the last seven-day period, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
As of March 21, the latest approval data, roughly 10,400 Rhode Island small businesses and other eligible entities like nonprofits were approved for a combined $822.8 million in loans under the second round of program funding.
Nationwide, the program has doled out $195.8 billion across 3.1 million loans with an average loan size of $63,000. Just over a week remains until the original March 31 deadline, though legislation that extends the program through the end of May is expected to be approved in the U.S. Senate after already passing in the U.S. House of Representatives, various news outlets have reported.
For the first week since the program reopened in January, Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank was no longer ranked among the top 15 lenders.
Nationally, accommodation and food service industry businesses remain the top recipient of overall funding, with $33.7 billion in loans, equal to 17% of total funds. Industry and demographic information by state was not available.
A majority of recipients still do not identify their race or ethnicity, making it difficult to tell whether a two-week restriction on eligibility intended to focus funding on smaller and minority-owned businesses made a difference. As of March 21, $152 billion in funding – more than three-quarters of total funds- went to recipients who did not identify their race. Among those who did, white loan recipients received $31.6 billion, while Black and Asian recipients were approved for $4.9 and $5.2 billion in funding, respectively.
Hispanic and Latino recipients, which are categorized as an ethnicity separate from race, received $5.8 billion in loans, compared to the $58.4 billion that went to non-Hispanic or Latino recipients. Again, a majority of funds – $131.6 billion – went to those who did not identify their ethnicity.
Of the original $284 billion allocation, $88.2 billion remains, not including the $7 billion added under the American Rescue Act Plan of 2021.
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. You may reach her at Lavin@PBN.com.
