Small companies, already hammered by the coronavirus pandemic, can not seem to catch a break.
On the primary day of the reopened Paycheck Safety Program, a key lifeline from Congress, banks are reporting that the Small Enterprise Administration’s portal is just not working.
Bankers instructed NPR on Monday that the system, often called E-Tran, wouldn’t permit them to enter loan software data that’s wanted for small companies to entry this system.
“We now have been trying to entry E-Tran since 10:30 and have had no luck,” stated Maria Amoruso, chief advertising officer at Pennsylvania’s NexTier Financial institution, in a noon message to NPR.
Amoruso stated her financial institution had 13 small enterprise loan purposes prepared on Monday morning. As of noon, her staff had solely been in a position to get one loan entered into the system.
“We labored by way of the weekend to make sure our loans have been able to go,” she added.
That is simply the most recent situation with the small enterprise loan program. It has come below intense criticism for a number of causes — massive banks acquired $10 billion of the processing charges and there have been complaints about loan cash going to huge companies or to most popular prospects of huge banks.
The federal authorities restarted the emergency loan program on Monday with $321 billion in funds. The Paycheck Safety Program first opened on April three with $349 billion — a pot of cash that ran out in 13 days.
Rob Nichols, CEO and president of the American Bankers Affiliation, a commerce group that represents banks of all sizes, tweeted angrily concerning the E-Tran issues Monday morning.
“Our member banks throughout the nation are deeply pissed off at their incapability to entry @SBAgov‘s E-Tran system,” he tweeted. “We now have raised these points on the highest ranges. Till they’re resolved, #AmericasBanks won’t be able [to] assist extra struggling small companies.”
Our member banks throughout the nation are deeply pissed off at their incapability to entry @SBAGov‘s E-Tran system. We now have raised these points on the highest ranges. Till they’re resolved, #AmericasBanks won’t be able assist extra struggling small companies.
— Rob Nichols (@BankersPrez) April 27, 2020
The SBA didn’t reply instantly to a request for remark.
