Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. (Photo: AP)
The Small Business Administration and Treasury Department issued an interim final rule on October 8 that provides a simpler loan forgiveness application for Paycheck Protection Program loans of $50,000 or less.
"The PPP has provided 5.2 million loans worth $525 billion to American small businesses, providing critical economic relief and supporting more than 51 million jobs," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, in a statement.
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The action, Mnuchin said, "streamlines the forgiveness process for PPP borrowers with loans of $50,000 or less and thousands of PPP lenders who worked around the clock to process loans quickly."
Mnuchin said he continued to favor additional legislation to further simplify the forgiveness process.
SBA began approving PPP forgiveness applications and remitting forgiveness payments to PPP lenders on Oct. 2.
Policy analysts for Raymond James said in Friday morning email briefing that the streamlined forgiveness process was for small borrowers with one or more employee other than the owner.
Industry participants and legislators alike, the analysts said, "had been calling for, and hoping for, forgiveness of loans less than $150,000. While this new announcement is not what we were hoping for, given the gridlock in Washington the timing of a $150,000 forgiveness approval was uncertain, this is significant a step in the right direction."
Regional banking associations, other independent lobbying groups, and legislators "alike will continue to push for the larger $150,000 forgiveness threshold and a second round of PPP loans for the hardest hit industries," the analysts said.
SBA said it will continue to process all PPP forgiveness applications in an expeditious manner.
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Melanie Waddell
Melanie is senior editor and Washington bureau chief of ThinkAdvisor. Her ThinkAdvisor coverage zeros in on how politics, policy, legislation and regulations affect the investment advisory space. Melanie’s coverage has been cited in various lawmakers’ reports, letters and bills, and in the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule in 2024. In 2019, Melanie received an Honorable Mention, Range of Work by a Single Author award from @Folio. Melanie joined Investment Advisor magazine as New York bureau chief in 2000. She has been a columnist since 2002. She started her career in Washington in 1994, covering financial issues at American Banker. Since 1997, Melanie has been covering investment-related issues, holding senior editorial positions at American Banker publications in both Washington and New York. Briefly, she was content chief for Internet Capital Group’s EFinancialWorld in New York and wrote freelance articles for Institutional Investor. Melanie holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Towson University. She interned at The Baltimore Sun and its suburban edition.
