As the small business recovery took off in the second quarter, a substantially larger share of banks reported easing standards for business loans, continuing the easing trend seen in the first quarter of 2021, according to the senior loan officer opinion survey released by the Federal Reserve today.
As the Libor endgame continues to count down, what rates are America’s large and midsize banks planning to adopt to update their risk models?
Half or more of banks surveyed plan to use the SOFR daily, SOFR term structure, SOFR arrears compounding, and/or BSBY reference rates to replace Libor.
In a highly anticipated move today, the Alternative Reference Rates Committee formally recommended CME Group as the administrator for a Secured Overnight Financing Rate term rate—a major milestone in the transition away from Libor.
Despite persistent pandemic-related uncertainties, optimism among small and middle market businesses is on the rebound, according to Umpqua Bank’s 2021 Business Barometer released today. More than half of middle market firms—55%—said they expect economic conditions to improve, up from just 33% a year ago, and 52% of small firms said they also expect improvement.
As small and middle market businesses seek to capitalize on a post-COVID bounceback, new survey research from Umpqua Bank shows that the business outlook is positive as firms have made substantial changes to respond to COVID.
The Small Business Administration today released guidance on how it will accept Paycheck Protection Program loan forgiveness applications directly from borrowers—bypassing the lending institutions—for loans of $150,000 or below.
The American Bankers Association and a coalition of financial trade groups wrote in support today of the Adjustable Interest Rate (Libor) Act to address “tough legacy” contracts that currently reference Libor but lack adequate fallback language and can’t be amended to add it.
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.
With the transition away from Libor now well underway, BAFT, the American Bankers Association subsidiary association for international transaction banking, and two other trade finance groups today published a new report discussing potential implications for the trade finance industry.