Read more at the Washington CU Daily
As the coronavirus crisis Paycheck Protection Program ends, the Small Business Administration reported that this year 859 credit unions made almost $5.6 billion in loans to businesses to help them weather the pandemic.
“The Paycheck Protection Program provided over 8.5 million small businesses and nonprofits the lifeline they needed to survive during a once-in-generation economic crisis,” SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman said on May 31 when the congressional authorization for the PPP expired.
The SBA reported that 851 credit unions with less than $10 billion in assets made 152,366 loans totaling $5.16 billion in the latest round of PPP lending. Eight credit unions with more than $10 billion in assets made 14,903 loans totaling almost $438 million this year.
By comparison, 4,105 banks and savings and loan institutions with less than $10 billion in assets made about 1.8 million PPP loans totaling $101.5 billion during the same time period. Banks and savings and loans with more than $10 billion in assets made about 1.8 million PPP loans totaling $118.3 billion.
Although Guzman touted the success of the program, credit union and other financial services trade groups have said the program was plagued by inefficiency and problems such as slow loan processing and ineligible businesses receiving loans.
SBA officials have noted that the agency began making loans immediately after the program was created and did not have time to create the infrastructure that normally would have been created when such a program was rolled out.
