WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Trump administration said on Monday it was releasing the names of hundreds of thousands of companies that took money from a high-profile $ 660 billion pandemic aid program, allowing the public to see for the first time how Most of the cash was spent and it did help save jobs.
FILE PHOTO: A woman walks past the Charging Bull sculpture in the Financial District as the streets remain less busy due to the ongoing outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the Manhattan district of New York, United States. , May 5, 2020 at 6:42 PM. REUTERS / Lucas Jackson
The United States Treasury and Small Business Administration (SBA) said the $ 521.4 billion in loans approved to employers so far has supported some 51.1 million jobs, or 84% of all small business employees.
Colossal paycheck protection program (PPP) dataset, released by the Trump administration after some initial resistance, provides transparency for the first-come, first-served program that has been haunted by technology, paperwork and equity issues .
To date, the SBA has released extensive distribution figures for the largest states, industries, and lenders. But the new data should show a much more detailed picture of which local communities and subsectors were supported and whether it helped save jobs.
The data could make life uncomfortable for borrowers who broke the spirit or letter of the program’s rules, which aimed to help liquidity-strapped companies keep workers employed, and for lenders who dumped the money out the door.
The Treasury and SBA said they were releasing data for more than half a million loans of $ 150,000 or more, including the recipient’s name, address, type of business, jobs supported, and some demographic information. That represents roughly 73% of the dollars awarded, but only 14% of the 4.9 million loans, according to a summary of data the agencies initially released Monday.
While the data doesn’t say exactly how much money each borrower received, the agencies said they were putting them in a band of different loan ranges.
Loans were limited to $ 10 million, although the average loan amount was $ 107,000, the data shows. The Treasury said it was publishing aggregate data on loans below $ 150,000, but said it would not name the recipients.
The funds reached a wide swath of beneficiaries: more than $ 67 billion for the healthcare and social assistance sector, more than $ 64 billion for construction companies, $ 54 billion for manufacturing and, at the smallest end , more than $ 7 billion for religious organizations, the initial data summary shown.
LINGERING QUESTIONS
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had initially declined to name recipients, saying he could expose borrowers’ private business information, especially if they are sole proprietors and independent contractors. Under pressure from lawmakers, he agreed to shed light on large borrowers.
Launched in April, the unprecedented program allows pandemic-affected small businesses to apply for a government-backed loan from a lender.
More than 5,000 US lenders participated in the program, with JPMorgan, the nation’s largest asset bank, which represents $ 29 billion in loans. JPMorgan, Bank of America, Truist Bank, PNC Bank and Wells Fargo originated 17% of total PPP loans, according to the data.
In the fight to distribute funds, the program was plagued with technology issues, documentation issues, and disclosures that some lenders prioritized their most profitable clients, leading some wealthy companies to receive funds, while less wealthy borrowers were lost. .
There have been persistent questions about whether those most in need benefited.
Approximately $ 30 billion in loans have been repaid or canceled, a senior administration official told reporters Monday. Those include loans taken by large or publicly traded companies, which drew strong criticism for violating the spirit of the rules, as well as duplicate loans issued to borrowers who applied to more than one lender or companies who decided they did not want or need the loan. . after all.
The data shows loans that have been approved by the SBA, but do not provide information on those that have been forgiven so far. Loans that appear to violate the letter or spirit of the rules cannot be forgiven, and senior administration officials confirmed Monday that they still intended to conduct a full review of the loans of more than $ 2 million.
The Justice Department has already filed charges against several PPP borrowers for fraudulently applying for loans, while the Securities and Exchange Commission has also begun examining companies whose public statements may have been inconsistent with the statement of necessity that the Borrowers had to do when applying for the loans.
Reports by Michelle Price and David Lawder; Editing by Tom Lasseter and Andrea Ricci
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