Acknowledging a somewhat choppy start to the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program on Friday, American Bankers Association President and CEO Rob Nichols this morning noted that SBA and the Treasury Department worked with bankers throughout the weekend to answer questions as lenders provide much-needed credit to their small business customers.
“We talked to bankers all weekend long at small medium and large banks who are processing loans and getting money out the door . . . into the hands of those small business women and men who need it so badly,” Nichols said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” this morning. He added that banks and other SBA lenders approved 100,000 loans over the weekends totaling more than $30 billion—“essentially the amount of SBA lending done in 2019 done in one day.”
With more guidance expected from SBA at any moment, and with more lenders being approved hourly to make SBA loans this week, Nichols said he expects the PPP to continue ramping up significantly. “Lots of progress is being made [and]we have more to do,” he said, emphasizing that “community banks, midsize banks and large, globally active banks have been doing everything they can to make sure that the economic tail associated with this crisis is as minimal as we can make it.”