Commercial lending

PayPal, Intuit QuickBooks Capital and Square Capital have been named direct lenders in the Paycheck Protection Program, and more await the go-ahead. They could be crucial to reaching the smallest firms trying to survive the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic.

Just days after the Fed lifted Wells Fargo's asset cap so it could make more Paycheck Protection Program loans, it warned customers its queue is long and they may want to go elsewhere before program funds are exhausted.

Banks, which previously shunned unsecured small-dollar lending, are now embracing the product because of the outbreak. It's just a matter of whether the shift is permanent.

After opening-day fiasco, SBA upgrades lender portal with Amazon assist; West Virginia’s First State Bank closed by regulators; BofA offers emergency loans to borrowers first, freezing out depositors; and more from this week’s most-read stories.

Bank of America, which came under fire for prioritizing applications from existing small-business customers, asked a federal judge in Baltimore to reject a request in a lawsuit to temporarily bar it from employing the practice.

Bankers say they’re still trying to figure out if the Fed’s complex loan-buying vehicles will help them cater to the needs of midsize commercial customers hammered by the economic shock from the coronavirus outbreak.

The week-old Paycheck Protection Program will be opened up to sole proprietors and independent contractors on Friday.

Midsize businesses and state and local governments are among the beneficiaries of the central bank's latest $2 trillion effort to mitigate the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Many banks were hitting their limits for lending to small businesses devastated by the coronavirus outbreak. They say the Fed's decisions to help fund additional loans and relax capital requirements will resolve many of their problems.

The maneuver could delay efforts by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to add another $250 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program.

The majority of small businesses faced a financial challenge last year and that was before the pandemic curtailed consumer demand and forced nonessential companies to close.

The Fed's actions are designed to ensure the flow of credit to midsize businesses and state and local governments hit hard by the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The bank will be allowed to exceed the limit to enable it to make more small business loans; the CEOs of HSBC and StanChart are also donating part of their pay to coronavirus victim charities.

Upgrade's hybrid loan-card product can now be used without swiping as consumers and retail workers seek to minimize spread of novel coronavirus.

The agency overhauled its system for the Paycheck Protection Program on Wednesday. Lenders hope it addresses the access issues and a crash that bedeviled the effort’s first week.

The Federal Reserve is temporarily altering the growth restriction it placed on Wells Fargo in 2018 so that the bank can make additional loans to small and midsize business that need funding to weather the coronavirus pandemic.

The lending facility is for companies with more than 500 employees that are disqualified from the relief program for small businesses and too small for federal loans reserved for larger companies.

Lawmakers want to expand the two-day old small business loan program by another $250 billion; Calabria says nonbanks are exaggerating their financial woes as forbearance claims rise.

OakNorth helps banks analyze credit, identify pandemic-related risks and forecast borrower issues before they turn into defaults.

Firms that spread big-dollar deposits to community banks have seen a rush in demand as small businesses seek emergency loans to weather the coronavirus pandemic.