The Small Business Administration will tomorrow launch an initiative to accept Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness applications directly—bypassing the lending institutions—for loans of $150,000 or less, officials said today on a webinar reported by Politico. Meanwhile, SBA officials also said that borrowers who received second-draw PPP loans amounting to $150,000 or less will not have to supply documentation proving a 25% revenue reduction in 2020, Politico reported; instead, SBA will use alternative data to determine revenue reduction.
SBA officials said that applications in its public-facing forgiveness portal will take just a few minutes to complete, according to Politico. Lenders will still be required to determine whether to approve forgiveness but SBA’s intent is to streamline the process for both borrowers and lenders, officials said. The portal is expected to be launched on a pilot basis tomorrow and to go live to all borrowers around August 4.
During the webinar, SBA Associate Administrator Patrick Kelley urged lenders to “give it over to the government and get your life back,” Politico said. “All of us want to be done with forgiveness—borrowers, lenders, government—by the fall, across the board. So this is the final push that will hopefully put PPP in the rearview mirror for the borrowers, for the lenders and for the agency.” ABA Daily Newsbytes will report the new forgiveness guidance once SBA formally releases it.
