Small business lending

The Small Business Administration's last-minute plan to temporarily block larger banks from the relief loan program is another example of the agency changing the rules midstream, critics said.

The Small Business Administration has processed more than 476,000 applications from struggling small-business owners, but lenders say access to the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program has been spotty.

Elected officials are better off deciding who’s most deserving of federally backed coronavirus relief funds for small businesses.

Fintechs in the payments industry saw problems coming when the CARES Act’s SBA Paycheck Protection Program opened the floodgates for millions of coronavirus-stricken small businesses to apply for loans.

Lawmakers should approve a program to distribute stimulus funds using a government-sanctioned coin, which would be speedier than the current system.

Portal crashes, technology glitches, last-minute changes in guidance, renewed suspicions about loan dispersal: Meet the new Paycheck Protection Program, same as the old Paycheck Protection Program.

Community banks that have used the Paycheck Protection Program to help businesses ride out the coronavirus outbreak are looking to turn that goodwill into deeper loan and deposit relationships down the road.

Queued-up loans. Extra bankers. Government tweaks to promote fairness. None of these precautionary measures has been enough for the second round of the Paycheck Protection Program to avoid the pitfalls of the first.

As banks accept new applications for the paycheck program, they are dogged by complaints that they prioritized wealthy borrowers. But lenders likely fast-tracked clients they knew best under difficult circumstances, observers say.

The Small Business Administration's systems froze up shortly after the latest Paycheck Protection Program was launched Monday morning.