Paycheck Protection?

Writes Greg Privette:

Hi Lew,

I saw the post by Bill Sardi about attempting to apply for the payroll protection loans. Our bank is one that is participating in the program so one of their reps contacted our VP a few days ago to suggest we take advantage of it. Or VP tried to get on it quickly. He spent the better part of last Thursday and Friday filling out all the necessary documents and submitted it all last Friday. During the course of the process the interest rate already went from .5% to 1.5%. It was either late Friday or Monday he was notified that the entire program had changed and he had to fill out a completely new application. I know this will come as a surprise, but the new application is way more complicated and requires a lot more information. Our rep from the bank also told him that many of the banks are dropping out of the program and he is not sure if they will stay in it or not. At one point our VP had some question about part of the application and called a help # for information. The recording said they were very busy and to please be patient as he was number one hundred and some thousandth in the que!!

It is clear that even though a very meager portion of the overall 2.2 trillion bail out was designated to help small business and their employees, they are attempting to make it next to impossible to participate in the program. It is also obvious the whole process will be drug out to the point that any money that is “loaned” will come way too late to save most small businesses.

I am not sure whether the government is trying to strictly curtail participation so the meager amount allocated won’t be overwhelmed, or if it’s that the legal departments of the banks actually got around to reading the details of the programs and have become skittish? I am guessing the process is not nearly as complicated for all the banks and large corporations that are being bailed out after becoming overleveraged due to stock buy backs and M&A deals.

Share