Saturday, December 14, 2024

SBA allows direct PPP forgiveness, bypassing banks

Politico reported today the SBA plans to outline a new initiative aimed at encouraging borrowers with loans of $150,000 or less — accounting for more than 90 percent of the pandemic-era program — to apply for loan forgiveness.

According to the report, the SBA will notify banks that the agency is setting up its own online, consumer-facing forgiveness platform.

Rather than forcing borrowers to apply through banks, the SBA forgiveness site will accept applications from small borrowers directly in a format that officials estimate will take businesses just a few minutes to go through. Lenders will still have a say in whether individual PPP loans should be forgiven, but the intent is to reduce the amount of time and effort that banks have to invest in the process.

You can read more about this story in today’s issue of Politico by clicking here. When the OBA receives official notice from the SBA on its plans, we will be sure to pass it on to our members.