FinTechs Help Banks Ease The PPP Lending Pain

Small businesses overwhelmed U.S. financial institutions as they scrambled to apply for Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. When the program went live on Friday (April 3), only two FIs, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, had been able to begin accepting applications — Bank of America saw a whopping $6 billion worth of applications in only a few hours, ending Friday with $32.6 billion in applications. It was a shaky start for the initiative that was designed to ease the pain of the coronavirus pandemic, with small businesses expressing frustration at the “nightmare” process of attempting to access a portion of the $349 billion available under the legislation.