On Friday, the House passed—and President Trump signed into law—the CARES Act, a $2 trillion stimulus package to provide relief to American consumers and businesses struggling as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The law—which reflects days of bipartisan negotiations by lawmakers and the White House– will help ensure banks have additional tools to help their customers and communities, and the nation’s economy, through the crisis.
The law contains several provisions ABA actively advocated for in conversations with policymakers in recent days, among them significant enhancements to the Small Business Administration’s lending programs that include increasing to 100% the government guarantee of loans made for the 7(a) loan program’s new Paycheck Protection Program, and waiving certain requirements for SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loans made in response to the COVID-19 emergency.
Other ABA-backed provisions include: temporary relief from troubled debt restructuring designations, an optional CECL delay and an 8% community bank leverage ratio, among other things.
